


Every eye trained on a different star

by the_second_best



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Louis always miss the train, Louis unknowingly prevent Harry from committing suicide, M/M, blah, harry is too serious, larry stylinson - Freeform, louis is a chatterbox
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-15
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-01 16:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1045785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_second_best/pseuds/the_second_best
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry meets the explosion named Louis unexpectedly on an unexpected train journey. Louis unknowingly prevent Harry from committing suicide. After that Harry is stuck with Louis. I know nothing about 1) geography of England 2) railways of England. This work is based on a movie. Title from Called out in the dark by Snow Patrol.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi:) first of all English is not my first language and I apologize for all the grammatical errors and for the lack of posh words. I know nothing about 1) geography of England 2) railways of England. I'm writing this only because I love Larry Stylinson and this movie to my death. If you are about to read this I love you :)  
> N.B. Please be gentle on me I'm very sensitive. Thank you.

There is this problem with falling in love; we will only get to know how deep we were in, when it starts to lose from our hands, in front of our eyes, like missing a train by mere seconds.   
***

Harry was slowly losing track of time, place, people and every single thing that was happening around him. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing in this room anymore. Everyone is a blur of shadows, shadows in perfect wrinkle free suits and tightly tied up hair talking, talking and talking making a perfect mayhem. 

All he can feel is the reassuring warmth of Liam’s hand on his shoulder. He should be listening to what his lawyer is saying. At least pretend like he is paying attention. But the only thing he can hear is a white noise.. white wall, white flowers in the centre of the long table. His jaws are aching; he’s been clenching it for too long. God, he’s been sitting here for too long, hours may be, in the same posture at the head of the table, hands clasped together in front of his lips, elbows propped up in the polished shiny surface, face blank. He looked up to the other end of the table once, where his mother is sitting staring right at Harry, her lips turned down and the dark circles around her eyes more prominent. Harry quickly turned his face away. He didn’t want to show his distress and frustration to the woman he respected and loved from the day he was born, even though she is equally responsible for the situation that they are currently in.

“…you should be happy that my client is not insisting on going to court. There is no point in taking that step anyway. What my client wants is clearly mentioned in the last sitting, all those demands are valid and are inevitable for the existence of this incorporation as well as Mr. Styles’ position in this company.”  
Harry wasn’t aware that he could tense up more than this. He stood up slowly, the sudden rush of blood to his eyes making him blind for a few seconds. Liam started saying something. Liam’s voice is dominating all the madness in the room. May be Harry is imagining it, because he is so familiar with that voice. He would recognize it if he wake up in the middle of a carnival in Rio. 

“I don’t think we should jump into conclusions.” Liam said.

Liam didn’t see Harry standing up from his seat. Harry felt disappointed and relieved at the same time. But he can’t blame Liam. He’s fighting for him and his company like a brave knight. Harry’s father made a right decision when he selected Liam two years back, rejecting so many experienced people. 

Men in uniform made an attempt to move from where they were standing near the wall to approach him. Harry raised a hand feebly to stop them and gave a slight nod to convey the message that he’s okay, which is quite the opposite. He can feel his mom looking at him with worry. His heart ached to be in his childhood again, to bury his face in his mother’s chest and cry. But things changed so drastically that he can’t even look her in the eyes these days.

“I just want to make it clear that the reason that we gathered here is to consider my client, Mrs. Cox’s demands.”  
“We never asked you to consider anything and you don’t have the right to consider.” Emma, Harry’s lawyer said in a perfectly unprofessional tone. That was it for Liam.   
“Excuse me. We are not here to fight like school girls..”   
“Whatever Mr. Payne, There is no compromise on the list of demands of Mrs. Cox”  
“All I am saying is that there are more important issues to be handled at this moment than discussing this. It’s been two months since we’ve made any dividend payments. All the shareholders are very disappointed in the current situation of our company. Our share prices are going down like titanic. This-“  
“Mr. Payne, Mrs. Cox’s demands are as much important as all the above issues you said. Why cant..”

Harry closed the door to the conference hall behind him without making any noise. He looked into the room for two more seconds through the glass portion of the door. Liam is still talking to both the lawyers. 

Everything flipped upside down in the time of two weeks, from the moment his mom decided to get married again. His life, everything that he has worked for is on top of that shiny table, stacked in big files for everyone to gaze, to make decisions. Those decisions for sure will be against him.

He walked in the direction of the washroom. Employees in pressed shirts and skirts greeted him as he passed cabins after cabins. Some raised their eyebrows in concern for the lack of Harry’s response. The usual cheery smile and nod was long gone from his face, replaced by a blank stare. He turned the corridor and opened the door to the washroom and locked it the moment he was in.   
Breathing was becoming a very hard task at this point. He wiped his forehead with the heel of his right palm while looking at the reflection of his pale face in the mirror. He may have stood there for too long because a small voice and a knock came through the closed door.

“Mr.Styles..? Is everything alright”?

He opened the door after a few moments. Perrie was standing there with a clipboard in her hand. He thought he somehow managed to school his emotions successfully but the frown that was already set on her face deepened further to prove him wrong. He walked past her to the front lobby, where everyone stood up and greeted him. He walked through the entrance to where his car is parked. His driver stopped talking to some man and walked hurriedly towards the passenger door to hold it open. But Harry walked straight to the driving side and asked wordlessly for the keys. His driver, George gave him a puzzled look, but gave him the key.

Harry started the car and drove straight through the gate into the main road. His hands were trembling. There is only one place that he can go to that will calm his mind and body from this whirlwind. Everything calms down when she is around him. He gets a temporary fixture when he is with her. He thought about calling her to tell that he’s coming but didn’t make a move to do it. It was like that from the minute he woke up in the morning. Wanting to do things and not doing it because his mind was too numb to do anything. The only remarkable thing he did in the morning was getting in the shower. 

He took a turn from the main road and entered a pocket road which further leads to another road. After driving three more minutes he reached a flat. He took the spare key of her flat from the glove compartment. Without bothering to lock the car he went to the main hall and walked towards the lift.  
He was ready to spend all his frustration, disappointment, distress and anger all on her the moment she opened the door. After all she was his rock. The lift stopped on the fourth floor corridor. Harry walked to the door and put the key in the keyhole. After last Friday he couldn’t see her because of all the problems which eventually lead him to this familiar door. The door clicked open.

The moment he entered the hall his breath left his lungs. All he could see was a naked man turned towards the wall and those beautiful legs that he loved so much wrapped around the man’s waist. There was this ringing in his head that got louder and louder exponentially with every second he stood there. His heart plunged to the bottom of his stomach. His knees began to get weak. He wanted to cry, puke, sit somewhere, punch something hard, run from here or at least scream on top of his lungs. That’s what he did. He screamed.   
There was a loud noise of something hitting the floor, a door being opened and closed and more shuffling. Harry looked at the wall where everything was happening. There was only one person now. Throwing a t-shirt over her body, she came closer to him with guilt written all over her pretty face.  
“What are you doing in here Haz..? I thought there was some meeting or something.”  
Wow. He should have seen that coming, to warn his heart that the series of today’s cruel surprises aren’t finished. He should have seen that coming, from all those things that were happening in his life recently. She was having sex with a man who was clearly not him. And out of all the things she could have said, she chose that damn cliché thing. Harry shook his head.   
“How long..how long have you been doin-“  
“From the day you stopped showing any kind of interest in me other than showing up here and taking all your problems out on me.”  
Harry wanted to punch something. All these time he thought that she would understand him. That she will stick with him in all his problems. He was dumb enough to assume all those in his mind. His own mother turned against him so it is not logical to blame a woman whom he knows only for one year and three months. He felt like he is the number one stupid in the whole world to trust those two women whom he considered as the most important people in his life.   
He is stupid.  
“How could you Cara..? I thought what we had… You were my rock.. You…never mind.”   
“Look Harry, I know how stressed you are. But things were never the same between us after your dad passed away. Don’t tell me I didn’t try. I tried very hard to make it easy for you. But nothing made you happy, nothing made you the old Harry. Things I did was not enough for you. I was not enough for you. I know I am not enough for you...”  
“Cara.. I..” He wanted to fight, but all he could do was listen to her like he’s being advised by his mother.  
Tears prickled his eyes. He felt that hard lump in his throat that come and settle there right before you start crying.   
“I..I should probably go.. goodbye I guess.”

He turned around and walked towards the door, closed it and dropped the key on the floor. He should have closed the door a bit harshly to show his anger. He couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do it. After that everything was a blur. It was like he was moving in autopilot. He was going to crash down. He was going to fall asleep for years and years till this day go away from his memory forever. He was going to throw all away and destroy himself. He walked past his car and turned the corner. His phone began to ring in his pocket. He grabbed it and threw it to the nearest bin. He loosened his tie and let it fall on the sidewalk.   
He walked and walked bumping into people wearing suits similar to him, tripping two or three time on his own shoelace which he didn’t bother to tie. He unbuttoned his coat and two of the buttons of his white shirt. Evening wind blew through his hair making it dance in the wind. It might be past 6. A loud laughter from a group of teenage boys led him to a park. He sat on the edge of an iron bench on the farthest corner of the park, away from all the ‘too happy’ people. He rested his head on the bench and closed his eyes and ears. 

 

“Hello”  
Harry opened his eyes with a rapid beating heart. A man who seemed like a security officer was crouched in front of him.   
“Are you alright? You have been sitting here like.. for more than four hours.” The man said glancing at his watch. Harry wiped the corner of his mouth and pressed the heel of his hands on his eyes.   
“It’s kind of..um..time to close the park.”  
Harry stood up with his wobbling knees and walked out of the park.

He has no idea how he reached Kings Cross railway station. His brain is not helping him to fetch the details of that last half hour. People hurried past him and he looked around for the first time. A woman bumped into him and walked past him saying a sorry without even throwing an apologetic look at him. A few weeks before he was just like them, one among them who preferred running through the streets of London than walking and enjoy. He stood there for a minute and suddenly, like someone turned a key, joined the people.   
There was a train on the platform. He walked with the people on the platform, through the open door of a train and sat down on one of the seats. Security be damned. He doesn’t give a damn about his own life right now let alone the security issues.  
***

 

“Oh come on, stop staring and help a guy out, it’s not like all those muscles are suddenly going to vanish just because you lift this suitcase up and put it on that seat”   
Louis said very sweetly to the guy who was staring right at him. The guy was about to get on the train, that’s when a loud ‘Hi’ and a blinding smile made him stop in his track, making him very confused. He was seeing this pixie boy for the first time and it didn’t make any sense to the man why this boy was being all friendly and smiley towards him. Now Mr. Muscles gets it. The pixie boy needs a hand with all the bags which were put very artistically like a tower near the said boy, which quite sure belonged to several people. 

“Every single bags and suitcases are mine. You know, vacating the flat and the whole education completed and all that. Niall told me to dump half of this in to a river or something. But how can I do that?” Louis clutched the stuffed tiger in his hands tightly. “Like how can I dump this cutie in my hand to a river? His name is Kookie by the way, dumb name I know, my sister named him.” Louis rolled his eyes thinking about his sister giving that godforsaken name to Kookie when Zayn gave it to him on his 20th birthday. Mr. Muscles rolled his eyes like they were in an eye rolling competition (it went unnoticed), while carrying a big trunk into the train. If there was a competition at all Mr. Muscles would have won, because the things that came out of Louis mouth were that much eyerollworthy. This all happened in one minute.

“Wow! You put two suitcases and one bag in there already, impressive. I didn’t even notice. Only two more..um.. I think I can take it from here. Hey wait.. don’t go. Can you hold Kookie for a sec, please? Thank you.” 

Mr. Muscles groaned (which again went unnoticed) and silently took Kookie from Louis’ hands. Louis lifted his backpack and put it on his shoulder and lifted the bag that was on the ground. “OH MY GOD this thing is heavy.” Several heads turned in his direction. Louis didn’t miss a beat to smile at all the people who turned their heads at him. He is very polite in those sort of things. “Like really heavy. Niall, that little shit dumped me in this station without helping me with these. Now I really doubt that he packed stones in my bags to make me suffer.” His body was in a very funny posture, the heaviness of the bag in his hand making his body to bend towards the right side from the middle to sideways and the backpack making him lean forward like he has a hunch. “Give me a hand or I’ll fall down.” He managed to say it through gritted teeth. “Thanks”  
Mr. Muscles extended his other hand. Louis grabbed it and step into the train.

“Ahh.. Fucking finally. Thought I will never get on this train with all these bags.” A baby in the train, startled by this unexpected noise pollution, started crying. It’s mother gave Louis a glare (unnoticed). Louis smiled brightly and suddenly looked at his hand. “Mate, you can leave my hand, you know, I’m not that hot, right?” He asked to no one in particular and laughed. The poor guy left his hand in a fraction of a second blushing and handed Kookie back. Actually that guy was so dumbstruck about the last three minutes. He shook his head and walked to his seat muttering something like “What the fuck just happened?”  
Louis scanned the surroundings for a potential candidate to talk while he transferred his bags one by one to his place. A woman in her late twenties made a mistake of looking at Louis. Gotcha! 

“Hello there, How are you?” Louis asked with an eyes crinkling, all toothy grin and didn’t waited for an answer and continued. “Mom called me yesterday and told me that she will come and pick me up. How can I say yes to that I am a 22 year old boy ha. I said, Mo..m thank you very much I’m perfectly alright I can travel on-Go…d this bag..” He tugged it’s handle a few times and it came smoothly from where it was stuck in a seat. He petted it’s handle and murmured good girl without knowing that the strap was broken and was now hanging on the previously said seat. The woman turned her face away and began to tap on her phone screen.   
On his next trip to take his bag she had her headphones on. Rude. He was going to complete that story. He took the rest of the bags in each hand and stood next to her on her face level. The woman startled so hard and her eyes popped out of their socket as he mouthed “See you later, have a nice journey”. 

He turned around and walked to his seat and dumbed the rest of the bags on the floor. “I should have listened to mom, think my hands are gonna fall of-“ A boy is sitting on his seat. What? “Hey that’s my seat.”   
No response. He waved his hand in front the boy who reminded him of a statue.  
“Hello Mr. Curly hair, that’s my seat. And how did I miss you when I first came here?” He looked around for nothing in particular.  
“Ok Mr. Curly, I’m gonna repeat it.” He stood in front of Harry and started punctuating every word. “This. Is. My. seat. Seat number 23. It is printed big in this ticket, see.” Louis waved it in front of Curly’s face. The boy didn’t even blink and continued staring into nothingness.   
“Dude, I am talking to you.”  
Harry jolted in his seat and looked at the boy in front of him, who is staring right at him with a smile plastered to his face.   
“Thank God you woke up from your day dream. Actually this is my seat, If you could..”

Harry stood up fast and almost tripped on his own feet while taking the seat opposite to where he sat earlier.   
“Whoa.. easy easy. I was not gonna shout or anything. I’m a very friendly guy, you know.” The intruder said while sitting down. Harry rested his head on the headrest trying very hard to zone out from whatever this boy was on about. But he couldn’t because the boy was chatting away like there was no tomorrow. 

“I am going to meet my family after 2 years yay.. all the way to Doncaster.” He made a sound of a flight taking off and a hand gesture similar to it, purposefully ignoring the fact that he is travelling on a train. ” I miss Donny. Stan used to say you would never miss Donny when you are in London. He was damn wrong, like I miss my place all the time. May be not all the time, but sometimes..”   
He tucked his right leg under his left thigh and looked expectedly at Harry for a come back, who was sitting there glancing downwards.   
“Curly, are you deaf by any chance?” Louis leaned away from the seat to get a good view of the curly headed boy.   
The curly headed boy looked up at the boy at his dumb question to show how displeased he is for trying this much to start a conversation when it is very clear that the other person is not at all interested.  
“Wow certainly not. Like, this is not the first time I’m guessing something wrong.” He laughed. “But no offence mate you really look like you are deaf. That guy over there laughed with the sound of a volcanic eruption and everybody were so shocked, but you my pal sat so steady in your seat like a palm tree. Palm tree? Where did that came from?” He crunched up his nose at his poor choice of words. “Are you going to Yorkshire? Then I’ll be right here till Doncaster to give you company. Wait, do you want something to eat?” He began to rummage through his shoulder bag for a bar of chocolate which he ate half on the way to station with Niall. Niall kept grabbing at it from his driving seat. Louis smiled to himself at the memory. 

”Guess not.” He glanced at the boy and back at the half eaten bar of chocolate at his hand. Then slowly tore the wrapper off and took a full bite. He carefully put the wrapper back in his bag. “I like your style you know, the colour of the suit matches you perfectly. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fashion designing major so it’s kinda my job to judge every single person’s outfits who crosses my path. There are some people who dress so weird that I want to send them straight to Tim Gunn. People sometimes ruin their beauty by wearing the wrong dress.” God this guy really is something. I’ve been talking non stop for like minutes and this moron haven’t uttered a single word. This is going to be the worst train journey in the history of train journeys. Louis sighed in defeat.

Louis took his phone from his pocket and opened temple run. He made sure to glance at the stranger sitting opposite to him every now and then. He was staring blankly at the ground again. A few of his curls were not cooperating with the others and hanged loosely on his forehead. His skin was so pale. There was a frown which was etched to his face from the moment Louis saw him. What’s up with this boy? He is too serious and glum for his age. He is clearly younger than me, Louis thought and all the attempts that he had made to make this boy talk had gone flop. Aah.. the man is dead. But not a bad score. Louis closed the game and put the phone in his laptop bag. Now he doesn’t have anything to do, except watch the boy in front of him. 

The sudden urge to tell this beautiful stranger that everything will be alright made him restless. Louis opened his mouth then closed it. No. That will be very forward and ridiculous. He should go to sleep or something and should keep his mouth shut till the train reaches his station. That is what is going to happen. He closed his eyes and let the sound of the train wash his ears and brain. The tiredness of whole day suddenly kicked in like it was waiting for him to close his eyes, and mouth. 

Harry looked at the boy who was currently taking a nap opposite to him. This guy was the most irritating person he has ever seen. The boy didn’t close his mouth for a second except for the past 10 minutes. The cheery tone which was beyond sufferable was ringing in Harry’s head in a loop. The blinding smile and the deafening sound of talking was not something Harry could bear right now. He must be really happy in his life. No worry about a company soon to be fallen down, which he and his family built from scratch to 5 industries, 52 branches, lots of franchises and a top three position in UK . No worry about his father who died 7 months ago who dumped all the responsibility on his shoulders. No worry about a mother who was turning against him to get a better portion of the business that to be divided to her and her new husband. No worry about a girl whom he loved cheated on him when he needed her the most. No worry about anything.   
To prove Harry’s point the boy or the man smiled in his nap. Then the boy opened his mouth and closed it for a few times. Harry looked at him carefully. The boy then began to speak in his sleep.   
“Candle.. no lamp. Buh we need candles..” He then made some incoherent noises and shifted in his seat. “Smelly ones..” He made a light snoring sound, shifted his face to the window pane and continued sleeping. Harry stood up from the seat.

 

A sudden jolt in his sleep woke Louis up. He blinked his eyes once, twice, then looked around his cabin. He was alone in the cabin. “Where did he go.?” He took a bottle of juice from his bag and took a few gulps. Put it back in the bag.   
Harry opened the door of the train. The ground below the train moving so fast, which made his head spin. It would be so easy to take a step from the train and everything would be over. All of his problems, all this madness. Maybe he’ll have to wait, laying in the railway track half injured, for the final peace to come and carry him to nothingness. Maybe he should stop thinking and do it. Maybe he should ignore the voice which is saying something from his behind. He took his right hand off from the handle of the door. He was swaying slightly with the force of the wind. Suddenly a strong hand grabbed his other hand and whipped him around. He stumbled into something soft but strong. The arm was holding him firmly and he realized that he is shaking. 

“What the fuck you are doing here?” The same familiar irritating voice. Harry opened his eyes and met with blue. The boy’s mouth was talking miles per minute, not audible because of the rush in Harry’s ears. “..you do know that this is not safe, right? You could have fallen off.” Then the boy took a pause and his face turned soft.  
“Are you dumb?” Louis asked very softly looking into Harry’s eyes. “I mean do you have disability with speaking?..mute?” Harry could only stare at him. His body was still shaking.  
“Please show me your ticket.” Louis looked at the ticket checker who was now standing near them looking at him. “And sir, please get in the cabin. It is dangerous to stand there.” 

“Please come to our seats for the ticket. He is asking for tickets curly, you have got one, right?” He whispered the last part ducking his head down.   
Louis grabbed Curly’s wrist and pulled him to their cabin, the officer following them right behind. He fished for the thicket in his shoulder bag and extended it to the officer when he got it. The officer checked it and gave it back to him. The officer then looked expectedly at the next traveller, who was currently sitting with his head on his hands which were on his knees, curls falling loosely between his pale fingers. It took only a moment for Louis to assume that the curly head have no ticket with him. He slowly turned towards the officer and put his best puppy dog face on display.  
“Officer.. the problem is..um..his journey was kind of an impromptu one. There was this very urgent matter in his home and the poor lad couldn’t even get the ticket before hopping on this train.”  
The officer gave a disapproving look and shook his head. “But, this is a serious case of security issue. A passenger without ticket is not allowed to travel in a train. I hope you know that.”   
“Listen, he is going through a lot at the moment..” he nodded his head and pursed his lips to bring a dramatic effect to all this. “..anyway this train is not that crowded and it’s midnight so no one is gonna come for further checking. Why don’t you give him a ticket right now? It’s not like you’ll get everyday to do a good thing to a boy in misery on your duty time. So when you get a chance you should do it…sir.” Seconds passed and Louis felt awkwardness creeping in the air because he was looking at the officer with his eyebrows raised with a smile on his lips. And damn he could stop doing it if this man said something in reply.   
“Okay.” That was the only reply. “Where are you travelling to?” The officer asked Harry. Because of not getting any response the officer asked it again turning to Harry’s direction. Still no response. The officer rolled his eyes in irritation.   
“He is asking where you are going to curly.” Louis tried his best to do the sign language which he made two seconds before. The curly head looked at him with confusion and uncertainty in his eyes.   
“Where is this train going?”  
Both the officer and Louis had the same expression. The officer’s was an expression of disbelieve for a passenger traveling in a train without knowing where the train is going and that without a ticket. Louis’ was also an expression of disbelieve but there was 60% shock in it, for hearing the rough voice of the stranger for the first time. Louis suddenly came into action.  
“Officer, what he meant is the last station, which is York, right curly?” Louis didn’t forget to add a duh tone into it for making it convincible. The officer shook his head and printed a ticket from the machine in his hand and handed it to Curly. Curly took his wallet out and gave the officer the money.   
The moment the officer was out of sight Louis’ face split into a mischievous grin. 

“How high are you curly? Or hi how are you?” Louis did an exaggerated wink. “Or is there a story behind all these? You can tell me you know. Everyone say that I am very good at giving advices. When I was in uni everyone would come to me after a break up or when they wanted to get into someone’s pants. Don’t worry I handle other serious stuffs too. Zayn comes to my house all the time with his midlife crisis, which is twice in a month. Then I will sit next to him and listen and give him the best advice that he ever had. So you can tell me whatever your problem is. I am re-“

“YOU ARE MY PROBLEM. Okay?” The sudden outburst from the curly headed boy made Louis open his eyes even wider. His face lit up like Eiffel tower in the night, because more than getting yelled at he had made the boy talk and it made him so excited. So he should be proud and excited than embarrassed.   
“You are my problem.” He pointed a finger right at Louis and Louis stared at his face excitedly. “You talk, talk and talk like there is no tomorrow and you won’t even stop talking when you are sleeping. I don’t care about what course you did in your uni or whether you have sisters or brothers..” Louis nodded with enthusiasm to everything that was coming out of the stranger’s mouth like he is taking notes mentally about what he is saying. “..I don’t care about whether you are good at giving advices or whether you are good at giving heads. Did you get that? So shut the fuck up.”

Several seconds passed in silence. The curly head was shaking from head to toe. 

“Wow. That was..um..but the giving head part was a bit unnecessary.” Louis said to Harry without any change in his expression.   
“Um..sorry about that. I was..um..just.” How was this boy keeping his cheerfulness still on even after he got yelled by a total stranger. Harry shook his head in disbelieve.  
The boy suddenly shifted in his seat and came closer to him. “Its okay..it’s not at all a problem. I know you are having a really tough time. You were upset about something and you got upset with me. This kind of anger management issues happens with all the people when they are in a situation like yours, so no harm done. I don’t feel bad.” He finished with a smile on his lips and a wave of his hand.  
Harry groaned inside. He thought this talking machine would shut up if he shouted at him. But apparently even a nuclear bomb can’t make this guy shut up. 

“Actually I don’t feel bad at anything these days. You know why? I am getting married.” How can this boy smile so wide and smile even wider when he says something happier than what he was already saying. Harry sat there without moving a limb and listened to the blabbering of this explosion sitting opposite him. “His name is Greg. The funny part is that my family don’t have a clue that I am getting married. They don’t even know that I am gay. How cool is that? But Greg said everything will be alright with them after one or two years. He is in Ireland. He was my senior in uni, Niall’s friend. He has this travel agency there and we will live happily ever after in the mountains of Ireland, or hills of Ireland.”  
He looked at Harry to make sure he is listening. “Actually what is the difference between hills and mountains? I’ll never get it..”  
“..we are planning an Irish wedding..”  
“..Niall always steal my food..”  
“..my favourite avenger is Iron Man, but Loki is so hot man..”

There is this point were you actually get bored of staring into blankness and trying very hard to zone out from someone who chat away like a water reservoir got broke and simultaneously thinking about ways to get out of this train and thinking about successful ways to end yourself. Harry reached that point almost 16 minutes ago. 

“Okay. I think I am tired. I want to take a nap for ten minutes. You should probably go to sleep too.” Harry said as much normally as he can without sounding rude.   
“Sure. Why not? Actually I was dying to sleep too. Then I felt like you were really enjoying my stories. So as a very dutiful partner in travel I entertained you.”  
“Thank you. Good night.” Harry closed his eyes before the crazy boy could say another syllable. He is definitely going to get off the train as soon as it reaches the next station. He will then rent a hotel room to end everything or he will take a flight to Ireland or Germany. No not Ireland, this chatterbox will be there. From when did he begin to consider this stranger, who is dozing off near him, in his mission impossible plans? Why do his plans always go mission impossible? He planned so many things for his future, putting every plan about his future in their designated compartments of his brain. A compartment full of future plans about his company, a compartment full of plans about his life with her, a compartment full of plans about looking after his mother and sister, a compartment full of his personal interests like music. Where did it go all wrong?  
The train stopped in a station. This is it. He opened his eyes to see the boy sleeping with his mouth slightly open and head resting on the window pane. Harry stood up without making any noise to disturb the sleeping boy and turned away towards the door. He looked back at the stranger who distracted him for almost one hour. Then shook his head and walked away. 

 

Louis opened his eyes so fast he couldn’t see anything for a second. Then a man said sorry as he sheepishly took the fallen bag from the ground. So that was the sound. And where is everybody going. The train is not moving. Where is curly?   
Louis slowly stood up from his seat and stretched his arms above his head. He should go and check. He examined the room. No curly in sight. What. He walked towards the door and stuck his head outside. The train will restart now. A boy who was curious to see what Louis was looking at also joined him. Louis scanned the whole platform, and on the second scanning he saw the brown curly head, which is walking away from the train. What the hell is he doing? The train is going to start in minutes. Doesn’t he know that? 

“Hey.. Curly. Where are you going?”  
“Who is he?” The boy next to him asked.  
“He was with me from London. I think he just forgot that the train will leave in any second.” ”Mr. White shirt in suit, the train is leaving.” Louis yelled on top of his lungs.  
“I’ll call him louder. What is his name?”  
“Oh come on kid. Are you here to help me or not?” with this Louis get off from the train.  
“Bro, where are you going?” Louis ignored the kid. He ran towards the Curly head, who was walking with his head hanging low, and grabbed his shoulder.   
Harry turned around to inspect the sudden impact. Arrghh.. not again. Harry had to literally bite his tongue to stop that thought coming out of his mouth.   
“You are gonna miss the train.” Louis said in between pants.   
“You are gonna miss the train. Not me.”   
“What? Your station is at the end of this track and I thought you didn’t notice that the train is about to start.”  
“You are clearly mistaken then. I changed my plans in the last minute. And I am very well aware of the train… leaving. I think… the train is leaving.”  
“What? Why did you change your pla-WHAT? Is the train really.. Oh my God. Okay goodbye. Thought I might help you.”   
“Don’t need your help.”  
“Go to hell.” With that Louis turned around and dashed towards the train, which was moving slightly. He is not going to miss his train for this arrogant kid anyway.   
BAM! Why is he looking at the roof right now? He sat back up on his back and scrambled his feet hurriedly to stand upright. His feet slipped again. Then he stood up slowly cursing whoever poured water on the floor intentionally to make him fall on his back. The train. Where is the train? There is no train. When did that happen? 

“Oh my GodOh my God Oh my God.” Louis swallowed and walked a few feet forward and then turned around putting his left hand on his hips and the other on his forehead. “What am I gonna do now. Jesus.. my bags, certificates, money, phone, laptop... Okay calm down Louis. Take a deep breath.”  
Louis sat down on a seat near him and stood up the second the thought of a curly headed bastard crossed his mind, who caused all these problems. He was getting angry. He scanned the place for that familiar head. There he is, slowly walking towards the steps. His slow walk and his slow talk. “Argghh..” He groaned. No you are not going to escape just like that. You don’t know anything about me. You have seen only one side of my face. You are about to see the other side.  
Louis ran towards Harry and stood right in front of him in the first step of the stairs, hands on his hip. Harry was about to take the first step. His leg stopped in mid air. Louis was getting so worked up with his anger. Harry looked bewildered too. Good.

“You fucking weirdo. Who do you think you are?” Anger turns Louis into a sassy bitch. “You just sat there like a poor boy, who needed help, the whole time. And I thought I was helping you. I missed that goddamn train in this godforsaken hour at night just so you don’t miss the train. And when I came here to tell you that the train is leaving you said you don’t need any help from me. You think this is funny?” His voice was getting louder and louder. “I lost my bags, money phone and who knows what else on that train. I don’t even know my mother’s number by heart.”  
Harry blinked at him and put his foot down on the ground.   
“Why are you not saying anything? Huh..?” Louis wiped his face with his hand and sighed. “This is what I get for helping people. This is why Zayn always say you shouldn’t help people this much. I just..” Louis hit his foot on the wall to transfer some of his anger to the wall. Thud. “Ahh.. Fuck. It hurts.”  
“I’m sorry. I will help you.”  
Louis looked at the boy’s face, which showed some kind of emotion for the first time. There was worry written all over his face. But Louis didn’t let his guard down.  
“You should be. That’s why I came running after you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :) here's the second chapter. Apologies for the grammatical and other errors in advance. This is just self indulging. Love you if you're about to read it :)x

The boy who walked like a snail is now climbing the steps covering two steps in one go. Louis could only turn around and look at what was happening with an open mouth. The curly head then stopped on top of the stair and looked right behind him to say something to Louis, who was still standing where the stairs starts. He must have thought that Louis was right behind him. He raised his head a bit and looked at where Louis is standing with a dumb look on his face, which he very much wanted to project as an annoyed look, but was miserably failing at it.  
“What are you doing standing there? I thought you needed help.”  
Louis blinked. “Okay. Okay. What is the plan?” Louis will not allow some freak, who, he is 88% sure, is high, to help him without a solid plan.  
“My plan is to get out of this station and get in a cab and reach the next station as soon as possible, before the train leaves that station.”  
“Okay.” That is a good plan.  
“Do you need a parade to come here then?” Curly made a gesture with his hands that showed a rude version of the sarcastic version of ‘please come in’.   
Louis shook his head very fast and took the same method to climb the steps, which curly opted. “You are not as slow as you show others, you know.” Louis said to the boy who is standing near him. Then they are running. “Curly, Slow down a bit I want to say something”  
“No. You can talk as much as you want after you reach the next station.” Those legs are the foes of Louis, which were covering twice the area Louis was covering in one step. Curly’s blazer was flapping behind him on the sides of his hips, like Dracula cut his coat into half. Thinking about Dracula made him look at the watch. Its 11.40. The train will reach the next station in about 25 minutes. Looks like tonight’s the night Louis Tomlinson break some traffic rules like they are in a rom com climax. He has been longing to do it for ages.   
“But this is important.”  
“What? That you are going to die because you can’t talk while you are running?”  
“Noo..it’s-“  
“Then shut up and run till we hit the main road.”  
Ha. Now who gave him the right to be the boss? Louis liked the curly headed boy when he was calm like a lake, or high as a kite, when he sat there so patiently listening to whatever Louis said. This curly is bossy and is running very fast. He is struggling to keep u-“Ooomf” Louis hit Curly’s back very hard that his nose got smashed in between Curly’s shoulder blades .  
“Get in the cab” curly said while opening the door of the cab for Louis.   
“When did you ge-“  
“Get in the cab mate. We don’t have much time.” He was closing his eyes and tilting his chin up in the air in a dangerous way.  
“Okay okay. I’m in. I’m in.”   
Curly sat next to him and closed the door behind him.  
“Where to sir?”  
“To the next railway station please. Break some rules if you want but we want to reach there within 20 minutes. I’ll pay you double.”  
The driver hesitated for a moment and then Curly said “two and a half” then the cab took off like a rocket. Curly was looking outside the window with a tensed jaw. Is he worried about paying the cab? No. Louis shook his head looking at Curly’s rings on his fingers and the expensive watch on his wrist. Definitely rich.  
This guy was giving Harry a constant headache. First it was with his nonstop talking, now this madness. All Harry needed was some time to clam his mind down and take a decision about his life, which is ‘to end or not to’. But this boy just bombarded in to his personal space like a nuclear bomb and looks like the after effect won’t be wearing off soon. Harry will leave this hyperactive the moment he reaches the next station. The boy was fidgeting in his seat, constantly throwing questions in the driver’s direction. The driver looked like he is ready to jump out of the car. But he answered all the questions the boy raised, most of them were about traffic and whether they will be able to reach the station in time. All in all the past twenty or twenty five minutes were very peaceful moments for Harry. He took this time to clear his mind off the day’s events and listened to the rumbling of the car and the rambling of the pretty boy sitting near him. They reached the next station in a record time. The boy rushed to the entrance of the station the moment the car stopped. Harry took his wallet out and paid the cabby and run behind the boy.  
The station was sort of deserted. The first thing Louis did was check for his train. Thank God there it is, on Platform number eight waiting for a certain passenger who missed his train at the last station. Louis was panting with his hand rested on his knees and head hanged low. Then Curly joined him.  
“Jesus Christ we made it. Water.. I need water. Hey curly can I borrow some money from you? need some water..” Curly stood there with his hand clutching his stomach and breathing very fast. There was a small shop near them with different beverages on display.  
“sure.” Harry took the wallet from his back pocket and gave the money. “Please don’t miss the train this time. Okay?” Harry said in a pleading voice.   
“Okay..Okay I wont miss it this time.. Thanks.” Louis said in between taking gulps of air. He took speedy steps towards the shop without glancing back to the retrieving figure of the curly head.  
He grabbed one mineral water from the rack which was on display. And took gulps after gulps. He glanced back at the train to make sure that its still there and ensured that it made no signs of leaving. It stayed still on the track. Brilliant. He then smiled at the shop keeper who had dirty blond shaggy hair which looked like they haven’t seen a comb or water in their entire existence. He looked so collected and calm. Louis gave a smile to the man. “You know, coke is very tasty and all but when you had a run of your life like I had, all you want is a bottle of pure water..” He took a gulp to emphasis his point and made a satisfied noise in the back of his throat. “How much mate?”, another gulp.  
“That will be 25 pounds.”  
Louis placed the bottle on the counter with a bang with his best ‘what the hell’ expression. “What the hell? I won’t pay more than 18 for this. What do you thought..huh? that I will pay whatever you say just because all the other shops are closed here..?”   
No change for the calm and collected. “Ugh..Come onn..” Louis whined, but with dignity. The calm and collected was looking behind Louis. His eyes were moving from right to left in a loop. What is this weirdo looking at instead of listening to Louis.  
“Look mate I don’t have time for your monopolistic games, take this 20 if you want, that’s the only money I have with me right now. The rest is in the train..THE TRAIN. Fucking hell the train..”

“ STO..OP.. Somebody please stop the train..STO..P” He was yelling like a mad man running behind the train with his hands flailing to stop the train, which is impossible. The train was speeding up. No way he’s gonna get on the train. He reached the end of the platform. Tears threatened to spill down his cheeks. His heart beat sped up like he finished a marathon. He looked to his left where the platform starts, then to his right where the platform ends. What was he thinking? That the train will wait for him forever? That moron shop keeper. No actually the moron is me. Fighting with a dumb shop keeper for 5 pounds. Oh god but only me, only me will miss the same train two times in the same night. “Damn”  
He wanted to sit down somewhere and think what’s Zayn’s phone number. But he felt so restless. A hand on his shoulder made him jump in shock. It’s the shop owner with his bottled water. “You forgot your water pretty boy.”  
Pretty boy? Louis turned his face away from the man with a huff. “Are you lost? Did you miss your train?” Louis again ignored the man. “You don’t have to wait here, I’m going to close the shop anyway, you can come with me if you want. I have a decent home.” He finished with a dirty smile scanning Louis from head to toe. Louis glared at the man and walked towards the entrance where there was an enquiry and a security office.   
The officer was a man around forty and had a grumpy look on his face.   
“Excuse me” The man looked at Louis without a single amount of interest on his face. If Louis was in that man’s place he wouldn’t have shown any interest too. “My name is Louis Tomlimson. I missed my train a few minutes ago. And-“  
“Which train?”  
“Train to Yorkshire from London. And all my belongings including some money are in that train. My phone is in there too so I can’t arrange someone I know to pick up the luggage when it reaches Doncaster ..I need your help”  
The man tapped his fingers on the table. “What were you thinking when you left the train? You are an adult and you know that trains aren’t supposed to wait for the passengers like buses.”  
Louis was getting impatient. He clearly knows that it’s his mistake this time, by which he missed the train. And he didn’t want some middle aged man to point it out for him.   
“You have to be more careful when you travel by train. Kids of your age should be more responsible”  
Louis wanted to correct the man that he is not a kid. But he is not going to encourage him for continuing his talkshow. This man’s voice and his advices were getting on Louis’ nerves . “Sir, can you help me?”  
“Let me see what I can do”  
“All my certificates and stuffs are there so you should take this seriously.”  
“Who said I’m not taking it seriously? I’ll arrange someone in the Doncaster station to pick your bags and stuffs. Fill in the details of our seat and belongings in this paper. “  
***  
Louis has no idea what he is going to do now. He is out of the railway station and he doesn’t have a single penny in his pocket. He scolded himself mentally for the thousandth time for being so careless. He walked aimlessly through the sidewalk where a group of girls of his age with heavy make up and high heels were sitting on benches. A girl said something to the others looking at him and the rest of them laughed. Louis waved at them just to be polite and looked longingly at the small bakery on the opposite side of the road. His tummy made a low grumble in response.  
A loud screeching noise distracted Louis from sending heart eyes towards the bakery. He slowed down and turned his face to see what’s happening. One girl from the group was now standing beside the window of the car talking to the driver. Oh... So they are that. Louis turned around and watched the scene in front of him with interest. The girl looked like she was bargaining. Suddenly the car started with a low rumble and the headlight flashed right on his profile. Louis covered his eyes with his hands to prevent the blinding light. The car slowly stopped beside him and the man inside it gave him a once over.   
“Hey beautiful, wanna come with me? One man, full night, my place.. what do you say?”  
Louis let out a loud snort and covered his mouth with his hand to stop laughing further. He was still smiling when he replied very politely that “I’m not that.”   
“Oooh.. so you like to play games.” The man said with a devilish grin while shifting the gear seeing that Louis started walking. Louis felt fear creeping inside him because this man is not joking, he can see it from the way he is eyeing him.   
“come on love say something.” Louis decided to walk faster ignoring the man altogether. The car then stopped and within seconds the man was walking beside him in the same pace. The deserted alley looked horrifying combined with the fear of being alone with a well built stranger, whose intentions were not at all good.   
“Stop being so hard to get babe, I’ll pay you whatever you say, you are the most handsome boy I’ve ever met. Your friends there, whom I met is nothing compared to you.”  
Louis’ mind was reeling thinking about how to get out of this. His pulse drummed in his ears. He looked around the place hurriedly, the place is dark and he can’t see through the thick layer of fog. But the man is not leaving him. Louis took a sharp turn. Is that the silhouette of a familiar curly headed boy a few meters away from him? Without thinking twice Louis started running towards Curly, the man chasing him right behind.   
Harry turned around with his heart in his throat. Two people were running towards him and he was glued to the ground. If this is some kind of homicide the murderer better kill me, it would lessen Harry’s efforts of ending himself tonight. He closed his eyes as the people were just near him. Suddenly someone was hugging him very tightly. Harry opened his eyes to see a man in his thirties standing there staring at him, and at the person who was hugging him..wait isn’t this the lunatic from the train?   
“Oh come on boy.. Quit your games” The man who was staring raised his voice and hands in desperation.   
After coming out of the initial shock of seeing the boy from the train once again, Harry came into action. “What’s going on?” Harry asked the man with a steady voice. The man huffed and went back to the main street muttering something under his breath.   
Louis slowly untangled himself from the curly head’s body “Thank you thank you thank you so much curly.”  
Harry could only shake his head in disbelief. “Cant believe you missed your train again. And care to explain the drama that happened just now?”  
Louis flashed a big smile and extended his hand for a handshake ignoring the question altogether. “I’m Louis.” Harry rolled his eyes but did the same anyway “I’m Harry.” Louis shook their hands slowly “Harry..Pleased to meet you Harry. Actually I have never been this much pleased to meet anyone in my entire life, because it’s you who caused these entire problems, and you will hire a cab, first thing in the morning, and will drive me to the Doncaster station. Don’t look so shocked I saw money in your wallet earlier, and don’t worry I’ll give it back the minute I get my wallet back.”  
Harry groaned tipping his head back. “God.. what am I doing?”  
“Being dramatic.” Louis smirked.  
Harry looked down and smiled. “Wait you didn’t tell me about how you missed the train.”  
“Aah.. It’s a long story” Harry resumed walking and Louis joined him. “So what are we going to do Harry? Walk through the scary and deserted streets of this unknown city till we see the sun? “   
“I was about to check into a hotel. And you?”  
“Haha. I’m assuming that you are asking this intentionally, just so you could make fun out of me for leaving all my money in that train.”  
Harry snorts. “I didn’t do it intentionally. “  
“Whatever”  
***  
The hotel was not an expensive one nor too cheap. It was an okay one. Louis entered the lobby of the hotel like he was spending all his life in there, Harry followed him. The man on the front desk smiled at them politely. “May I help you?”  
Harry came in front and put his hands on the desk. “How much do you charge for a room for a single day?” Louis was examining the interior of the hotel, after listening to Harry he quickly came in front of the desk and put his hand on Harry’s shoulder.   
“Why do we need room for a full day? We are staying here for only 3 or four hours. Just-“ The man on the reception gave Harry a sly grin.  
“Louis, listen to me you don’t know what you’re saying. Just let me handle this.” The man looked at Louis and then at Harry and then gave a knowing smile. Harry groaned inside.  
”Do you need the room per hour?” the man asked them with the same sly grin.   
Harry leaned further on the table and pointed a finger towards the man. “Just answer what I am asking you , okay? Now tell me how much do you charge for a day?” Louis groaned and turned towards Harry. “Why do you need it for the whole day? We don’t have to stay here the whole day.”  
“Listen let me talk-“  
“Oh like you are making so much sense. We want the room only for max three hours till the morning and then we are leaving. And you can save the money too.“ Then he turned towards the reception throwing a ‘I’ll handle this’ look at Harry. “We will take the room on ‘per hour’ basis” and smiled at the receptionist.   
The receptionist gave Harry a big grin and a thumbs up. Harry felt his cheeks burning. As his last chance he turned towards Louis. “Louis mate, you are not getting what he is implyin-“  
“Oh come on, be practical Harry. Why are you so embarrassed about this? We only need it for a few hours” He looked at the receptionist then back at Harry.   
Harry felt a smile creeping up his face for how ridiculous Louis is being. That boy is still not getting that the man at the reception is on the idea that the two of them came here for a hook up. The total number of times he smiled with this boy around was more than the number of times he smiled in the last few months, the thought made him uneasy, because hours before he thought he would never smile again in his life. Harry looked back at the receptionist who was asking Louis the details and typing away in an old computer. Harry is so ready to play along.   
“How many hours do you need?” the receptionist is asking to Louis. Harry watched him in interest as Louis calculated it in his little head about how much time they need. “How many hours do we need Harry? Two? Three? Three is more than enough, right?”  
“I don’t know you decide.” He answered with a smile.  
“Okay. We need three hours.” With that Louis wandered off to the other side of the room where there is a sofa.  
Harry shook his head with a smile. The receptionist was giving him smug looks. He took his wallet out and gave him the money and decided to play along. “How is he?” He asked the receptionist with one elbow on the desk while pocketing the wallet in his back pocket.  
The receptionist looked at Louis who was studying a chandelier in the lobby with interest. “Hot. Where did you meet him?” The receptionist asked.   
“In the train.”  
“In the train?” The man asked incredulously with turning his head to Harry. “Jackpot mate. Three hours” The man again gave him a thumbs up and handed the key to Harry. Harry laughed.  
***  
The first thing Louis said after both of them got fresh was “I know Karate.” Harry was wiping his face and hands after coming out of the bathroom. Louis was sitting on the bed with his knees drawn up. Harry stopped drying his hands and threw the towel at a chair near him and looked at Louis. “And?”  
Louis fidgeted where he was sitting. “And nothing, I was just saying. I am a green belt.” Harry stood there watching Louis to comprehend why he was saying this now. “You are afraid that I will rape you? Aren’t you?” this time Harry couldn’t stop his laugh.   
Louis’ cheeks burned with embarrassment but he quickly recovered. “No. Why would I think something like that?” He shrugged.” I was just starting a conversation. But if you feel like doing something like that, just remember, I know karate. I may look weak compared to your gigantic body, but I’m an expert in a martial art. Keep that in mind.” Harry perched on top of table and rested his back on the wall behind him.  
“Don’t worry I won’t rape you.”  
“You can’t rape me.”  
“I don’t want to do it.”  
“You can’t do it, even if you try.”  
“Are you trying to provoke me to rape you?”  
“No I’m just making it clear so that you don’t get the wrong signal.”  
“What wrong signal?”  
“You know I may be spending a night with you in this hotel, but it’s only because I don’t have any other options. And there is only one man in my life. Greg.”  
“Please take a piece of paper and note this down that I am a one woman man too. And I have one. See” Harry took his wallet out of his pocket and took a photo out of it. Within seconds Louis was near him. “Show me show me show me. “ Harry turned the picture in his hand so that Louis could take a look at it. Seeing the picture Louis let out a whistle. “Wow.. She is beautiful. You are a lucky man.”  
It didn’t take a millisecond for Harry’s face to fall. He looked everywhere but Louis’ face and walked slowly to sit down on the chair where he previously threw the towel at. “Not lucky anymore I guess.”  
“Let me guess she dumped you. Oh..” Circuits connected in Louis head after seconds. “ohhh.. So that’s the problem.”  
“Life has dumped me.”   
Louis occupied the seat where Harry was previously sitting, swinging his legs back and forth. “What do you mean?” Harry remained silent with his left elbow supporting his head on the chair. Just like he expected Louis was near him within a second. “Oh come on, tell me..I’ve told you everything.” Harry wanted to say that he never asked him to say anything, but bite his tongue instead. He looked at the photo in his hand. Louis stood so fast and went to the table and began searching for something. Harry raised his head from the photo and looked at the boy with a confused face. Watching that boy moving made Harry’s head spin, he was so fast like a fly. He will be at a place for a second, and the next he’ll be somewhere else. Louis turned back and came to where Harry is sitting in the speed of light. There was a matchbox in his hand.   
“She dumped you. So burn her photo.” The boy said excitedly shaking the hand with the matchbox up and down in front of Harry.   
“What?” Harry looked at the excited face in front of him in confusion.   
“Yeah burn it and..and flush her in the toilet.”  
Harry shook his head. “Why are you being so childish? This is something children would do Louis. I’m not doing it.”  
“Trust me, you will feel better. Just burn this and go flush it. Flush her out of your life.” With that he lit the match. Harry sighed in defeat and glanced at her photo for the last time. Then grabbed the match from Louis hand and lit the corner of the photo in his hand. He watched Louis rubbing his hands excitedly looking at the burning picture in his hand. Watching Louis seemed more interesting than watching the picture of the girl whom he loved burning in his hand. Louis patted him on the shoulder and urged him to stand up.   
“Go go go..before you burn your hand.” Harry stood up with the photo in his hand and went to the toilet. He closed the door behind him and looked at the burning picture. Images of her and what happened in her flat yesterday came running back to his mind. He shook his head and sighed, and opened the lid of the toilet. He let the picture fall in to the toilet and flushed it.  
He was getting impatient sitting on the bed and waiting for the toilet door to open. Moments later the bathroom door opened and Curly stepped out. He had a smile on his face. Louis felt relief washing through him. He smiled brightly at Harry. Harry stood there smiling and finally said “Actually I feel better”.  
The smile Louis gave him in reply was blinding.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third chapter third chapter. As I always say apologies for the mistakes. (^_^) plus Love you for reading :)

After a half an hour long animated description about how he missed the train and how Harry saved him from the perverted man, Louis asked Harry with a yawn “Do you wanna sleep in bed?”   
He was sprawled out on the bed like a starfish, and it was obvious that he was just asking this for the sake of asking. It was half past three in the morning when they decided to take rest after the excitement of burning the picture and the explanations of Louis’ escapades subsided. Harry was sitting on the chair with his feet on the bed. “No I’m comfortable here.” He said while dragging the chair near the bed so he could rest his legs fully on the bed. Louis hummed in response. Harry slouched further in to the chair and covered his leg with the bedspread.   
The moment he felt like the other boy was out Harry felt the problems and worries that he pushed back to the farthest corner of his mind for the past few hours coming back to him in full force, he tried to sleep but he couldn’t keep his eyes closed for more than three minutes. The last time he ate something was right before the conference yesterday, but hunger was the last thing he felt at the moment. Thoughts about what will happen to his company if he’s gone was nagging him to get up from here and go back to his place and solve everything. But his mother’s face at the conference hall yesterday, Cara’s face in her flat yesterday, his father’s face when he saw him for the last time before he died… all came crashing in to him. He never said anything when his mother started seeing someone after his father died, because it made her happy. He never said anything when she decided to get married again, because it made her happy, he was happy for her. And he should have said something when she decided to divide the ownership between her and her new husband, instead he become more silent and stood against it in his own way, like never coming home and by getting drunk out of his mind. That in turn made his mom to approach a lawyer, take this issue to a new level and unknowingly destroying what was left to him. He will never blame her because he showed all signs of immaturity and irresponsibility in the last months. The truth was he couldn’t handle his father’s death well. Cara said it straight to his face yesterday. It’s not like he doesn’t know that it is the root cause of all the problems. It’s just that… he didn’t want to face the truth yet. He didn’t want to acknowledge it, that his father’s death affected him more than anyone could imagine.   
The boy in the bed stirred and turned so he could sleep on his tummy. He squished his face on the pillow for two seconds and then turned his face to the side. His face looked so peaceful while sleeping yet his body told otherwise, because the next second his whole body turned to the side facing Harry. Harry looked at the sleeping figure in fascination, because this boy just went to sleep a few minutes ago but he had changed his sleeping position more than five times. There was times when Harry went to sleep on his back and woke up in the same position in the morning, but this boy was restless even when he was sleeping. The boy then scratched his nose with two of his tiny fingers and left the hand there. Watching someone sleeping is considered as a creepy act, but Harry couldn’t stop it, watching this boy sleeping made him lighter and his mind never flew back to the problems in his life.   
Sometimes Harry will get a sudden urge to hug someone, to lie down with someone watching the night sky, to sit with someone without saying anything just so he will not feel so lonely. On very bad days Harry will imagine, while he is in his bed unable to sleep, that someone who understands him, someone who cares for him is lying next to him in his bed smiling up at him. He will then sleep to the thought of it. And now he wanted so badly to go and lie down next to this boy, even if he was shifting in his sleep like he was dreaming about a war. He ignored his own thoughts and forcefully closed his eyes and listened to the soft breathing and occasional shifting and shuffling of the bed sheets.   
“Harry, wake up.” Harry felt a light tapping on his shoulder and the same voice calling his name again. “Harry.” He opened his eyes and closed it suddenly. His eyes were stinging because of the lack of sleep. When he heard his name again from somewhere distant he opened his eyes. He looked around, for several seconds and couldn’t understand what was happening, then the boy came out of the bathroom wearing the same dress but looking fresh. Upon seeing him the boy smiled at him.   
Louis had so many bad habits, one of them was a compulsory shower in the morning. He woke up at five thirty dreaming about people at the railway station dumping all his bags in a pit. The first thing he saw was Harry dozing off in the chair with the bed spread around his legs. His head was hanging on his chest and Louis couldn’t see his face properly. Louis then went to the toilet and took a shower. The boy was still sleeping when he get out of the shower. He prodded on the boys shoulder to wake him up. Since there was no movement from the boy he called his name and tapped his shoulder. Then the boy opened his eyes. A flash of green and then he was out like a light bulb. Sighing Louis went to the bathroom to do his hair and called the boy again on the way. By the time he got back the boy was looking around the room with a distant look on his face. Louis smiled at him and sat down on the bed. “I wish there were some bags and dresses with us to pack. I feel empty because I have nothing to do. And I want to brush my teeth so badly. I can’t even drink a drop of tea without brushing my teeth in the morning.” He plopped down on the bed and looked at the ceiling. “and why are you not getting ready? At least detach your bum from that chair mate.”   
Harry sighed and looked at his watch. It’s not even six in the morning. The bed where he rested his legs felt very very tempting. All he wanted to do was lie down in that bed and sleep for the rest of his life. Then Louis looked at him and tapped his right hand on his left wrist to prompt him to look at the watch. Harry sighed again and stood up, his whole body was aching. He walked towards the room listening to Louis rambling about how hungry he is and how he will die if he didn’t eat something right now. Harry avoided looking at his face in the mirror. He didn’t want to see the comatose version of himself staring right back at him. Minutes later he came out of the bathroom. Louis was standing near the door with an impatient look on his face.   
“Shall we move then?” He asked Harry and opened the door without waiting for any reply. Harry followed him wordlessly.   
The man on the reception was the same one who checked them in seeing him Harry smiled to himself. The man was sipping on a coffee. When they reached the counter he greeted them and smiled at both of them. Harry returned the smile and the key. Louis had reached the door by the time Harry finished the paper works. The receptionist took over the book from Harry’s hand and lowered his voice.   
“How was it?”  
Harry turned his face into a smug look and lowered his voice imitating the receptionist. “Best night in a long time.” The man nodded and raised his hand for a fist bump. Harry hesitated for a moment but bumped his fist with the same enthusiasm.   
***  
During breakfast both of them couldn’t even spare a glance at each other. The power of hunger was that much. Louis was the first to finish his breakfast. When his stomach was full and he stopped being a grumpycat because of the food deprivation, Louis turned to his old self. “You know, my mom and dad are worried about me.” Harry raised his head from the plate to tell Louis silently that he is listening.  
“They are worried because I have never brought anyone home as my girlfriend in my entire life. I am 22 and obviously they would worry about it, because they have never seen me with a girl. And I’m sure if they see me with a boy they will kill me first, then they will kill the boy next and then they will kill themselves. My mom would even come back from the grave to destroy all the evidences to prove that I was not dating a guy. They are so orthodox about stuff like that.”  
Harry stopped eating and looked at the boy sitting opposite him, who was playing with a napkin on the table. “Have your ever told anything about..you know.. about your sexual orientation , to your family?” Harry was not asking for the purpose of continuing the conversation, he was genuinely concerned about it. He felt sorry for Louis, that a boy like him, who is so happy and carefree, is worried about what his parents would say for loving someone who loves him back.   
Louis’ movements faltered. “No. But I tried once. I once told them during dinner, about a boy dating another boy in our uni, you know just to test the waters but they were so disgusted with it. So I gave up on that. I was so scared to say it to them. Anyway the point is that I have to reach home before lunch.”  
“Mhm. Any particular reason?” Harry asked while cleaning his hands.   
“Actually, yes. My family is worried about me right? So they are planning to set me up with a girl. Her family is very close to ours and I know her from the day she was born. From what I have heard she kinda have thing for me.. ughh.. Mum is so invested in this. I can already picture the detailed plan with algorithm and flowchart that my mum and Eleanor’s mum have prepared. Their whole family will come to ours for lunch today and I don’t wanna go homeee..”  
“Umm.. Who’s Eleanor?”  
“That’s the girl.” Louis answered while sobbing dramatically onto the table top where he had his face buried in between his hands. “We were like best friends in preschool and stuff. Whenever we played in school, we will always become the wife and husband and my other friends would become our kids. Everybody including our family, used to say that we will marry each other when we grow up. Then we grew up. But apparently I’m the only one who has really grown up. Rest of them are still stuck in preschool.”  
Harry processed all these new information in his head while chewing his food. Actually he was imagining little Louis playing with a bunch of kids. He suppressed the smile that was threatening to spill and looked at Louis who was waiting patiently for him to swallow the food and put some valuable contribution in this conversation. Harry thought about what to say and when nothing came up in his mind, he schooled his face in to a serious one and said “There are so many options you know.”  
“Options for what?  
“Umm.. to solve the problem in hand.”  
“Go on?”   
“Like.. You can tell her that you don’t like her, you like boys and that a particular one.” Harry said raising his one eyebrow as if it is the most appropriate and simplest solution.   
“Nooo..” Louis threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “I would have done that a long ago if I had the guts. Besides that girl can’t keep anything in her mind, she will yell this thing on top of her lungs to her whole family and to my family, even to my youngest sisters the moment I tell her. Next option please.”  
“Tell your parents about Greg.”  
“Never. Next”  
“Forget Greg.”  
A crumpled napkin hit Harry square on the face. “No. That was the worst option ever.”  
“Don’t be with anyone ever in your entire life.”   
A piece of chip hit Harry’s face this time with an unimpressed Louis saying “Next.”  
“Tell everyone that Eleanor is impotent.”  
“Ugh.. this one is the worst, not the one you said earlier. And she is not impotent. Next.”  
“Hold on a sec.. How do you know that she is not impotent?” Harry wiggled his eyebrows and smiled at Louis who was scowling and preparing to launch a sauce bottle right on Harry’s head. The waitress who arrived right on time saved his head. Louis smiled at him and Harry felt his lips quirking up at the boy opposite him. He felt a pleasant feeling filling his mind and stomach. Wow. They broke the staring and smiling when the waitress cleared her throat.  
“Right, up you go.” Louis said suddenly banging his palms on the table with a mock serious face. Harry jumped a little from the unexpected sound and left the booth following a cheerful Louis after paying the money.   
***  
The journey to the Doncaster railway station was not that eventful. The cab driver was a boring one. He opened his mouth only twice or thrice. Louis claimed 60% of the seat by saying that he was very exhausted and propped up his legs on the seat. The driver looked through the mirror at this and said nothing, seems like the driver won’t be saying anything even if they set a bomb on this cab. Harry spread his long limbs and settled as much as comfortable as he can with the 40% of backseat that was available to him. With drooping eyes he looked at the boy next to him. The boy was already sleeping with his mouth slightly open. His hand fell down from the handrest to his lap into an awkward position. Harry wanted to reach out and reposition his hand in a more comfortable way. But ignored it and closed his eyes.   
They reached Doncaster station by 11 and Louis was literally jumping on his seat. Harry felt a dull weight settling in his stomach the further they reached the station. Till now he had a purpose, taking Louis to the station, paying for the cab, food and stuff. He felt like he has been looking after Louis. But as the moments ticked by Harry felt like the things that pulled him back from ending himself were coming to an end. As much as he wanted to end everything to get out of this whirlwind called his life, he wanted to wander in strange cities in the nights like he did yesterday, he wanted to start a day without any schedules or plans like he did today, he wanted to be with someone who made him smile like Louis did. He wanted all of that, so badly. Louis was a distraction, and that distraction was about to say goodbye to him. Harry felt his pulse quickening the moment the car stopped. Louis was out of the car in a matter of seconds. He waited outside the car bouncing on the heel of his feet waiting for Harry to pay the cab. Harry turned to Louis with uncertainty in his eyes. Louis was looking back and forth from Harry to the station. He then smiled sweetly at Harry and asked sheepishly with his hand rubbing the back of his neck. “Can you please help me with the bags? There are a lot of them.”   
“Yeah.” Harry answered and smiled at Louis motioning him to move forward. They entered the station in silence, harry leading the way and Louis following suit. The station was crowded and stuffy.   
“What the.”   
Harry turned around and met with a frightened Louis who stopped on his path looking at something above Harry’s shoulder. He then turned around to look at what Louis was looking at. There was nothing extraordinary happening. “What?”  
“Mum.” Louis slowly took a few steps looking at the same direction. Harry looked again and there was a woman around forty sitting with a teenage girl with her face buried in her phone and a boy around Harry’s age with black hair and tanned skin with a bored look on his face. There was a bunch of balloons tied to the said boy’s seat. The next thing he know Louis was in front of that woman. She took a double take at the person standing before her, stood up really fast from the seat and hugged Louis very tightly. Then the girl and boy also stood up from their seat and hugged him. Harry watched the whole interaction from a distance with his hands in his pockets. The moment the sentiment of meeting her son was over, her face changed into a look which every daughter and son in the universe dreaded. The face she makes right before you get yelled. Then she was talking to Louis with the same look on her face, clearly scolding him for being careless. After a few seconds Louis interrupted her to say something and turned his face to where Harry was standing. Then the four of them was walking towards Harry.   
Harry suddenly felt awkward and small, standing there with his pigeon toes and hands stuffed in his pockets. Four pairs of eyes were looking at him and he felt an unfamiliar nervousness that he has never felt before even when he had meetings after meetings with big shot CEOs and important people. Louis then cleared his throat and looked at his mother, who still had an angry look on her face.  
“Mum this is Harry..um.. He is the one who helped me.” The woman’s face turned soft at that and smiled at Harry. Harry returned the smile. “Harry this is my mum Jay, this is my sister Lottie, and this is my mate Zyan. Everyone this is Harry. He is from London.” Louis finished his little introductory speech with a wave of his hand in Harry’s direction. Harry pretended not to notice the slight blush on Lottie’s face and greeted Zayn with a simple “Hey” which the boy returned with a “Hey” of his. The peaceful moment was broken when Louis’ mum asked “Lou, are you and Harry friends?”  
The wheels that were turning superfast in Louis’ head were visible from where Harry stood. Louis could say ‘no’ truthfully and say his mum that he only knew him for the past twelve hours. But that will lead to explaining further and more scolding and advices from his mother. So he opted for saying “Yes mum, we both were in London, so obviously he is my friend.” His mum nodded satisfied and Harry stood there silently ignoring the sceptical looks that the Zayn guy was throwing at him. Then Louis mother was hugging him and Harry wrapped his hands around the woman hesitantly and patted her on the shoulder twice while looking at Louis over her shoulder with a ‘what should I do’ look. Louis shrugged and casually pulled a handful of his sister’s hair who shrieked ‘MOM’ in response. The mother then detangled herself from the hug and glared at Louis. Louis suddenly put his ‘what did I do’ face on display but returned to do the same while his mother turned around to look at Harry again.   
“Thank you for helping my son. He sometimes become so irresponsible about himself and will end up in something like this. This is not the first time something like this has happened to him. He will just jump without thinking. LOUIS.. stop that right now or I’ll send both of you to your father the moment we reach home.” Louis and his sister stopped the fighting where, he was continuously pulling her hair, and she trying to push him away with all her might and Zayn cheering Lottie to hit Louis. “Louis this is for you too, so listen to what I am saying. Come here.” Louis came obediently and stood near his mother throwing a wink at Harry. Harry smiled and Jay continued the blabbering. “Lou, you need to be careful okay? We have been worried sick about you. Zayn and Stan were here from two in the morning to surprise you and to pick you up from here. They waited for you till four and called us saying that you were missing. Then your dad came here and asked about you in the enquiry and they told him that your bags and belongings are with them. Dad left home with it and sent us to pick you up. Stan left home an hour befor-“   
“Mum, mum, take a breath.” Louis interrupted her while forcefully dragging her into his body for a hug. “I am right here, aren’t I? It is what matters, right?” He said with a roll of his eyes. Jay glared from where her face was held forcefully to his chest by Louis’ dainty arms. He then brought her face from his grasp and smacked a loud kiss on her forehead. She batted his hands away and muttered something while wiping her eyes discreetly. Harry felt a pang in his chest watching this son and mother, thinking about the kisses and hugs of his mom, which he missed so much.   
Harry was shaken awake from his thoughts when he felt a hand on his upper arm. Jay was looking up at him expectantly, clearly waiting for an answer for something she asked.   
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”  
Jay smiled at him tentatively. “You’re staying in our home, right?” As soon as the words left Jay’s mouth Harry looked at Louis with bulging eyes to convey the message silently that NO. Louis was looking at a ‘tensed jaw Zayn’ with a pleading look which said ‘I’ll tell you everything later, please’. Harry looked back at a still smiling Jay. “Actually I have to get back to work tomorrow.”  
Jay smiled mischievously up at him, the one freakishly similar to Louis’ “Is that so? I heard it was Sunday tomorrow.” Damnit. Why didn’t he think about it before telling that lame excuse? Louis and Zayn were still engrossed in a weird silent conversation which involved furious head shaking from Louis’ part and more jaw clenching and finger pointing from Zayn’s part. Lottie was standing there releasing huffs and sighs on appropriate intervals. Jay smiled at him expectantly again asking wordlessly for another objection just so she could crush it like a pro, Moms and their weird nature of inviting everyone home who says that they are a friend of their offspring. Harry put a fake smile on display sheepishly looking again at Louis, who looked at him this time and gave a fake smile of his own. Without any reason Harry’s face fell. Seeing this Louis’ face suddenly changed into a concerned one and raised his eyebrows in concern. Harry shrugged and the other boy gave him a genuine smile this time, which lifted Harry’s fell face and mind.   
Lottie groaned loudly from their side stomping her foot dramatically on the ground. Jay then ushered Harry and Lottie with both of her hands on both of their back talking to Lottie about lunch and food. Harry turned his back to look at Louis and Zayn who were walking behind them. Both of them were talking in hushed tones, Harry felt left out and turned his head away.   
Zayn was making a big deal out of everything. First he threatened that he will tell everything about how he missed the train to Jay, the moment Louis briefed the whole story. Then he asked a lot of questions about Harry which all hanged in the air unanswered. But Louis can’t blame Zayn for making a big deal out of everything. First, Harry was a total stranger. Louis didn’t know anything about him except his name is Harry and that he’s broken. Whatever the rational side of his brain screamed, he didn’t want to leave this boy alone. He has seen how sad and broken he was from the few hours he spent with him. The smile that wouldn’t reach his eyes and the pale face crumpled with sadness would never leave his mind if he left the boy in this station alone.   
The car ride to home was awkward and thick with tension. Jay was chatting to everyone, ignorant to the thick layer of tension inside the car. Louis was on the front seat, Harry Zayn and Lottie, were jammed on the backseat. Felt like everyone except Jay, were praying for the car to speed up and reach the home as fast as they can.   
As soon as the car reached a beautiful house Zayn and Lottie jumped out of the car. Harry opened the door slowly and stepped out of the car. Zyan then waved at Louis and Harry and then went to a similar house just next to Louis’ house. Jay closed the door behind her and turned to Louis while walking towards the front door.  
“Lou, Eleanor and her family will reach here at one o clock. Clean your bedroom and show Harry the room upstairs. Lottie, come to kitchen after changing your dress.” Lottie groaned and stomped inside the house. “Young lady today is not the day to show your attitude.” Jay yelled after her. Harry and Louis stood in front of the house silently watching the dramatics.   
“So.. This is my house. Hope you like it. Um.. sorry for mom forcing you to come home. She’s like that, she will invite all my friends home and will stuff them with all the food she made. It’s kind of an obsession. You wouldn’t mind it. Would you?” the boy asked with bright smile on his face.  
“Not at all. Like I would say no to a great home cooked meal. “  
“Remember to say the same after the lunch and dinner when I ask you. Trust me you will be stuffed with food. You wouldn’t be able to walk.” He said it like a witch saying about a curse, with a scary but cute look on his face. Harry snorted and felt the tension that settled earlier in the air dissipating slowly.   
The house was warm and beautiful inside, smell of cookies wafting in the air. Harry met three other girls too, two of them twins. They all were very shy and disappeared into their rooms after saying hi. His room was the one in the attic. One side of the roof slanted where the head of the bed met. Only after the shower that he realized that he doesn’t have anything to wear. He tiptoed to the next room which was Louis’, with a towel wrapped around his hip. He didn’t want anyone in this house to see him strolling in the house half naked. He knocked on the door and a ‘just out of shower’ Louis with damp hair wearing a band t and jeans opened the door. He looked very young and endearing.   
Holy shit was the first thing that came to Louis mind when he saw a half naked Harry standing outside his room. He struggled very hard from swallowing right in front of this boy. That would be creepy, to look at someone and swallow. Harry then saved him by saying that he doesn’t have anything to wear. They then went through a millions of jeans and t-shirts including some awesome suits and shirts which Louis designed for his final project. Harry finally settled on the biggest t-shirt which was green, hideous and round neck and there was a small hole in the sleeve too. Selecting a jeans out of the pile was the hardest task. He had to satisfy with a jean which was too wide on the waist and bum area and too short for him. By the time Harry got dressed Louis was out of the room saying he’ll be downstairs.   
Harry was going through a sports magazine in the room which was allotted to him, when a knock on the door and a girl voice told him that “Lunch is ready, Mum and Lou told you to come downstairs”, which ended with a few giggles. The smell of food made his stomach rumble when he opened the door. He reached the hall downstairs and wow there were lot of people. He stopped in his track and stood there holding the handrail tightly thinking about going back to his room. But Jay spotted him, and beckoned him to come and join from where she was sitting on a sofa. He sat there throwing a smile at everyone. Jay then introduced him to everyone.   
“This is Harry, he’s Lou’s friend from London.” With that Jay went back to gossiping with the rest of the people in the room. Then Louis joined him by his side plopping down on the sofa unceremoniously. He looked at the boy and he was grinning from ear to ear looking at the opposite side of the room. That’s when Harry noticed a beautiful girl sitting across them. She had brown hair and was looking at Louis with moony eyes. Harry lowered his voice and leaned down to whisper in Louis ear. “Is that your Eleanor Rigby?”  
Louis huffed and leaned up to whisper “She is not ‘my’ Eleanor Rigby and she is not Rigby, she is Calder.” Harry couldn’t help but smile at how uncomfortable Louis is. The girl’s eyes never left Louis and the boy was twisting in his seat. Moments later he felt Louis right hand grasping his thigh and he jumped slightly. He looked at the boy who was looking up at him batting his eyelashes seductively. Harry looked at him with a glare and muttered through gritted teeth “What the hell Louis?” Louis then leaned towards Harry and said “For the love of God, please play along.” Harry was partly amused and partly confused with what was happening. “Play along what?” He whispered back. “Just act like there is something going on between us. Pleeease..”  
“What? No.” Everybody turned their heads at Harry, who apparently forgot to whisper the last sentence. He smiled apologetically and everyone went back to what they were doing. Harry sat there steadily and sneaked a glance at Eleanor. Her brows were furrowed.   
This lunch was the most delicious food that he had in a while. Just like Louis predicted Jay was telling him and Eleanor to have a taste of this and that, while Louis snickered quietly beside him. This time Eleanor’s eyes never left both of them, observing them silently. She was trying hard to impress Louis. Louis was trying his best to show her that he and Harry had something going on between them. He took bites of food from Harry’s plate. He looked at Harry’s face with fake moon eyes and looked at Eleanor’s face right after that to make sure she was watching. He even dared to feed Harry from his spoon, which caused Harry to choke on his food. The only people who were watching this charade were the twins and Eleanor. The twins were absolutely amused by this and giggled at everything Louis did. Meanwhile Eleanor’s brows furrowed further and further. By the time the lunch was over Eleanor was glaring at Harry.   
After the lunch Eleanor’s parents and Jay told the boy and the girl to spend some time together to reminisce about their childhood and some crap like that. Harry supressed a laugh at that and looked at Louis with a shit eating grin. Louis looked at him through pleading eyes and when Eleanor looked at Louis he changed his face into a seductive one and winked coyly at Harry. Harry choked on his spit and turned around fast to cover his flushed cheek from others.   
He walked fast to the backyard were the twins were playing with a toy bow and arrow. Seeing him both of them greeted him in unison with big smiles.  
“Hi Harry.” which reminded him of the Patil twins from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie. He shook his head and crouched on the ground to face them and asked with an enthusiastic voice. “I see that you girls are very good at archery.”  
“Yes we are.” They answered with a happy smile.   
“Can you teach me?”  
“I’ll teach you.” One of them shot their hand in the air and added very seriously “I am Daisy by the way, and this is Phoebe” and handed him the bow and arrow. The sound of the backdoor being opened turned Harry around. Louis was standing there with a mischievous grin on his face. Harry lowered the bow. Louis walked towards them urgently and told the twins that their mum is calling them. The twins left with a groan and the two of them stood alone in the backyard.   
“Now what?” Harry asked while inspecting the bow in his hand.   
Suddenly Louis wrapped his fingers around Harry’s wrist and dragged him to a place. Now they were standing straight to the backdoor with his back towards it and Harry facing him. “Is she coming?” He asked with a glint in his eyes with the same grin on his face.   
“Who?”  
“Eleanor.”  
Harry looked at the backdoor which was creaked open. Eleanor stepped out into the backyard with a grumpy face. “Yes.” Harry answered.   
“Is she looking at us?”  
“Ye..s.” Harry answered slowly and tried fruitlessly to let go of the boy’s hand from his wrist but failed. “Louis whatever you are planning, I can already see that it is not good for both of us.” Panic raised in his throat as Eleanor took small steps from where she was standing to approach them. “Louis.. just stay away.”  
Suddenly Louis wrapped his hands around his neck and kissed the corner of his mouth in a swift motion. Harry’s face tingled where Louis touched him with his lips. He could feel the blush rising on his face.  
“Did she see?” Louis asked him still turned away from Eleanor and hugged him standing on his tippy toes. Harry could now clearly see the crumpled and angry face of the girl.  
“Eleanor.. listen he’s just playing a drama.” Harry said to the girl over Louis’ shoulder while trying to detach a super clingy Louis from his body. Louis then gasped dramatically and turned around with a hand covering his mouth.  
“Oh no.. Eleanor” Harry wanted to punch that dramatic face of Louis.   
Harry felt guilty, looking at the girl in front of them, who stood there with a frown on her face. “Look Eleanor, there is nothing going on between the two of us. He’s just faking it. Ask him” Harry was going through his words very fast, because he wanted to convince the girl that there was nothing going on between him and Louis.” Tell her.” He nudged Louis ribs with his elbow.  
Louis then looked at his face with the same grin. “Yes Eleanor, he is right. There is nothing going on between us. I swear. We’re just friends. Tell her Haz, that there was nothing going on even when we were in London.”   
Daisy then came back with Phoebe in tow. “Mom said she didn’t call us.” Louis rolled his eyes. “She’s lying. I’ll come and ask.” He then left the yard with a wink in Harry’s direction following a skipping Phoebe and Daisy.   
Eleanor glared at Harry and turned around on her heels. “Eleanor listen, There is nothing going on,. We barely know each other. We never met in London. He was just throwing a drama.”  
Then Eleanor opened her mouth turning around slowly but viciously. Harry could imagine the invisible flares coming from her eyes. “I may not be smart like some people from London, but I do have eyes. See.” She said pointing her forefinger at her eyes. “I can see.”  
“He did all this to show you.”  
“Why? Why would he want to show me this?”  
“Because..” Harry hesitated “You better ask him that. You know.. you both know each other from childhood..” Eleanor turned around and walked away with a middle finger raised at him.  
“Damnit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave some comments and I'll be happy :) but I'm very sensitive so not the harsh ones. :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo crazy mofos :D there you go the fourth chapter. Enjoy. Love you for reading it :)

Afternoon was a blurred hazy mix of 1) food induced coma 2) Louis’ terrible attempts at proving that Harry and he is together 3) Eleanor’s death glares at Harry. When her family decided to go home it was half past four. Before leaving the house she gave Louis a ‘puppy who got kicked look’ and Harry, as usual, a glare. Harry was so relieved that they went home and Louis was… well he is always relaxed and relieved.  
After the dinner, which was as heavy as the lunch, Harry excused himself from the living room and went upstairs to lie down somewhere to help his overloaded stomach with the digestion. All the Tomlinson’s were watching some reality show. Harry sighed as he climbed the stairs to his room in the attic. Louis was cheering loudly when someone got eliminated and Jay was telling him to be quiet. Harry’s lips turned involuntarily up at that. By the time he reached his bed he was walking like a zombie with exhaustion and sleepiness. He plopped facedown on the mattress and half-heartedly pulled the comforter over his body.  
A loud thud and cursing made Harry to startle awake from his sleep. He sat upright and stretched his hand for his phone on his nightstand. When he met with nothing realisation hit him that he’s in Louis’ home. That’s when he saw a dark small figure wearing a hoodie raising up from the ground. Harry felt his heartbeat picking up. His hand scrambled for something, anything to throw at the possible thief, murderer or god forbid a ghost. He clutched the pillow tightly in his hand while the figure stood up. Fuck his manliness and those craps, Harry was half a second away from screaming. Then the figure turned his head in his direction and ran towards him saying “Shhhh.. don’t scream.”  
Relief washed over him when his still half asleep brain registered the voice. “Whadare you doing here? Wha time is it?” Louis was moving like a rocket which got ignited, across the room to switch the light on. Harry closed his eyes and fell back on to the bed when the harsh light hit his face. The next thing he know two hands were grabbing his shoulder and he was compelled to sit down again. Harry opened his eyes slowly swaying a bit. The boy’s face was a few centimetres away from him. Harry flashed a dopey smile at the face in front of him and blamed his sleepy brain for it.  
“Congratulations! You ruined everything. I have had it well planned and everything was going smooth. She even bought everything I did. But a certain wanker who is still half asleep-” a pillow hit Harry’s face “-ruined all my efforts by advising Eleanor that she should talk with me. Did you say that to her? Because an hour ago she called me and told me that you said there was nothing going on between us and me and her should talk about it personally tomorrow. Personally..” Louis huffed. “I’ll talk to her personally when I am dead.” With that Louis stood upright from where he was crouched in front of Harry.  
“I ruined what?” is all Harry could ask.  
“Oh God you are useless when you are woken up from your beauty sleep. “  
Harry blinked up at him.  
“I don’t wanna talk to her but she is threatening me that she will tell everything to my mum if I don’t talk to her personally. What the hell is with that girl and her ‘talking personally’. Seriously. So I am going.”  
“What?” Harry looked up at him still swaying slightly. ”Sorry, where? Where are you going?”  
Louis rolled his eyes “What do you mean where? I’m going to Greg’s, to Ireland. Actually I am running away, to Dublin.” That’s when Harry noticed the big backpack on the boys’ back and a duffel bag which is placed on top of the table. Then Harry was not at all sleepy. All his sleepiness was washed away in a second.  
“Louis listen to me, don’t even think about it. Just don’t do that” Harry said with an urgent tone while standing on his knees in the bed so that he is in eye level with the boy standing next to it.  
Louis snapped his fingers in front the curly headed boy with a fake smile on his face saying “tada looks like I’m doing it. I came here to say goodbye to you” and finished it with an exaggerated wave of his small hand.  
“Are you leaving now?”  
“Yup.” The boy turned around to give Harry a good view of the backpack.  
“Like… right now?”  
“Yes. You just stay here till tomorrow afternoon or something. Um.. then go back to London. Do whatever you want but please don’t mention anything about me. To anyone… that’s the important part. Don’t even utter my name in this house. Okay?”  
Harry threw the comforter which was tangled between his knees and stood up. “Hang on hang on. God.. You are seriously running away.”  
Groan.  
“And I should stay here till afternoon?”  
“Yeah.” Louis answered casually.  
“Yeah? How can you be so cool about this?” Harry said half whining half unbelievingly. “That girl will open her mouth tomorrow and the whole Doncaster will know about us. Thank you for your Oscar nomination worthy acting skill-“  
“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you bab-“  
“Do not interrupt m-“  
“I will.”  
Harry looked at the boy in front of him with a blank face just so he would stop being a child. His head was blooming with a promising headache because of the unexpected waking up from the sleep. He really looked like a child, stubbornly waiting for a comeback from Harry.  
“Remember what yo-“  
“La la la la l-“  
“Oh for God’s sake Louis… You win. Now listen to me. Remember when you told me yesterday about what your parents would do if they found out that you are dating a boy? Remember? They will kill you first and then the boy who was dating you. And luckily, when Eleanor tells them about you tomorrow, that boy will be me. Me Louis me.” He stopped for a moment. “I may want to die. But not like this.”  
“What? You want to die? Wow that’s…” Louis looked at him with an indescribable look on his face. “hmm that girl was pretty special.” Louis said nodding his head like he know something that Harry doesn’t know.  
“What girl?” Harry asked in confusion.  
“Mate I am talking about your girlfriend who ditched you. You got over her way easier than I thought.” Louis said mocking the curly head. The truth was that Harry’s mind never wandered back to her or to anything back in London for the past 12 hours. He was so high with the happiness in this house, and the permanent excited voice of the blue eyed boy standing before him. Wow his eyes are so blue. It’s the shad-  
“Come with me.” Louis said while clapping his hands excitedly. Harry blinked. “Come with me to Dublin. You can stay there for a few days with me and Greg or with Niall, you can leave all the problems for a while that you are carrying around in that big head of yours. And let me tell you, its clear like a crystal that, she ditching you is not your actual problem.” The boy then stopped to take a breath. “So what do you say?”  
Harry shook his head causing the curls to fly in every direction which settled on his head eventually. “No. It will make everything more believable. If both of us are missing tomorrow they will believe whatever Eleanor says and it will be confirmed that there is something between us.”  
“Wow what a big deal.” Louis turned from an excited teenage girl who invited her best friend for a sleepover to a sassy bitch in a second. “What difference does that make to you? If you stay here my mum, dad, Zayn and Zayn’s abba together will kill you. If you run away with me the suspicions will be confirmed. I don’t see any difference in those two options, except for the part where you get killed.”  
It took several moments for the light bulb in Harry’s head to ding. “That’s right.” Harry said with a shrug.  
It took them 5 more minutes to get out of Harry’s room because he wanted to pee and wanted a hoodie. It was quarter to two in the morning and the boys were walking on their tippy toes across the hall in downstairs.  
“Lou?”  
“Shit.” Louis muttered a curse and both boys turned around to find Lottie in the hallway with her phone glued to her ears.  
“Where are you going?” She asked suspiciously while disconnecting the phone.  
“Nowhere.”  
“What do you mean nowhere?” She asked looking at the duffle bag in Harry’s hand and the backpack with Louis.  
“Nowhere means nowhere. And what are you doing in the middle of the night with your phone? Who were you calling? Hm?”  
“Answer me Louis or I will call mum.”  
The siblings looked at each other in silence for several seconds.  
“Run.” Louis whispered while nudging his elbow in Harry’s ribs.  
“What?”  
“Run.” Then they were bolting to the front door.  
“Mum dad… Louis is going somewhere.. with Harry.” Lottie was now running in the direction of the master bedroom while the boys were struggling with the lock.  
“Perfect.” Louis whined while dashing through the front yard with Harry running behind him. “What are we gonna do now?”  
“What have you planned?” Harry asked while throwing the duffle bag on his shoulder.  
“Well.. We can hire a cab and… um..” Louis stopped running while Harry continued. Harry stopped a few steps later when he found that Louis was not running anymore. He looked at the boy in question. “What?”  
“Um.. I haven’t planned anything.” Louis answered sheepishly.  
“Unbelievable man.” Harry said raising his voice while dumping the bag on the ground. “Is this your plan? We can hire a cab? You are running away to Dublin in the middle of the night. And your parents must be probably awake and you are saying that we can hire a cab. Do you have any brains?” This time Harry was really angry. This boy was, for the lack of words, very unlike Harry. Harry always had schedules for everything. For every single decision he took in his company there were a minimum of three back up plans. Harry groaned in frustration. Thinking about his company while running away with a boy who has not got a single plan for executing the said deed made the pounding in his head worse. Harry looked at the house behind them. All the lights in the house were now shining brightly. Harry groaned inside.  
“Did I know that Lottie will find us? Huh?” Louis attempted to start a fight but stopped it when Harry turned around and started dragging him towards the house while walking frantically. “What the hell are you doing?” Harry didn’t pay any attention to the boy who was struggling in his hand. “If you are going to tell mu-“  
“Shut up Louis.” Harry hissed tugging Louis’ hand more forcefully.  
“I’m not going back.” Louis said stubbornly stopping in his track causing Harry to literally drag him.  
Harry halted his movements and looked at the house where he could see shadows moving, through the window curtains. “Trust me Louis and do what I say.”  
“But why are we going back?” Louis asked while trying to rescue his right hand from the death grip of Harry. “We are not going back.” He answered while taking a turn to the gap in between the house and the fence which lead to the backyard. They could hear the front door being opened and the muffled voices of Louis’ dad and mum when they finally reached the backyard of the house. Louis’ dad was asking where did they go and they heard Lottie answering ‘to the main road I guess’.  
Harry dragged him behind a big tree which was one of the three trees in the backyard and was the thickest one. Louis slumped to the ground with his back pressed to the tree. “Now tell me, what are we doing here?” He asked in between pants tugging at the hem of Harry’s shirt to tell him wordlessly to sit down. ”We’ll wait here for sometime and will think about how we will reach Dublin.” He said in a hushed tone. “Give me your phone.” Louis handed him the phone which was in the back pocket of his jeans. Harry then did something on his phone tapping furiously with furrowed brows. He locked the phone and gave it back to Louis.  
“What were you doing with my phone?”  
“I was booking two tickets for a ferry service from Liverpool to Dublin.”  
Louis looked at Harry with bright bulging eyes with a proud smile on his face. “You are smarter than I thought.”  
Harry huffed and looked at the backdoor, he was still paranoid that one of the Tomlinsons will open the door to the backyard any moment and will find them. Louis slumped further to the ground. After minutes and minutes when everything kind of calmed down and the lights were out, Harry sat near the blue eyed boy. The ground was damp and the moon was shining above them. Harry looked at the boy for a reaction but the boy remained silent. Harry stretched his legs with his back rested on the tree trunk. He could feel the warmth from Louis body.  
The ferry he booked will depart at six in the morning. They together made a decision to wait here till three in the morning and then go to Liverpool. Louis was pulling the grass on the ground, plucking it and then throwing away. Harry was fiddling with his fingers. “So… will your boyfriend come to pick you up in Dublin?”  
Louis looked up to Harry from where he was closely inspecting a grass. He smiled sheepishly and turned his face away. “Guess not. The thing is I haven’t contacted him for two weeks.” He said while throwing the grass away.  
“No mannn..” Harry groaned turning his body fully towards the boy sitting next to him “Please don’t tell me that that guy doesn’t even know that you are running away from your family for him.”  
Louis just shrugged.  
Harry stared at the boy who was staring right up at him. He didn’t even know what to say. Because this boy was reckless, he doesn’t care about the future. He doesn’t just give a shit about what will happen the next minute. He is just so….. unlike Harry. The more he thought about it the more he wanted to advice Louis, that there is only one life and you just can’t ruin it with your reckless whims in your youth and that you should be careful when your blood is young so that he can live peacefully when he’s old.  
“What are you doing Louis?” Harry asked softly looking at the boy who was currently staring at the moon above them.  
“Hmm?”  
“Why are you playing with your life?”  
Louis then turned around from where he was sitting to face Harry with a startling speed, which startled Harry. He had that excited look on his face which Harry gotten used to in the past twenty four hours that he spent with this boy. And the dam was broken once again. “Because it’s my favourite game, life! What’s yours? Footie? Badminton? Cricket? I know, it’s car racing, right?” He made an impression of a racing car with a ‘WROOM’. Harry rolled his eyes, sighed and turned his face away from Louis.  
“You know.. there are a lot of problems in my life and now… this. Don’t even know how to get out of this.” Harry muttered the last part while rubbing his thumbs on his temples.  
“Why are you being so selfish?” Louis asked while pulling a grass harder than he did before. “You only think about yourself. What about me?”  
“What about you?” Harry asked incredulously. “This is your life, this whole eloping or whatever this shit is, it’s yours. Not mine. You are the one who is going to run away, not me. And Jesus what am I doing here? I mean I’m taking the risk of running away with you. People will start looking for us from tomorrow. Your parents will kill me when they find me and guess what? I don’t even get the boy. Great.” Harry was getting angry at how irresponsible Louis was being.  
Louis blinked up at him. “You can have Eleanor if you want. I will set you two up.” He said while struggling very hard to stop the grin that was threatening to spill out. Hearing this all the anger in his mind changed into something more calm. Only this boy could change a dead serious scene in to a cupcake and rainbows scene with just one word from his mouth and a smile on his lips. Harry couldn’t stop but smile.  
“You are having so much fun, huh?” The curly head asked while shaking his head at the boy sitting next to him.  
“Yu…p..NO. I’m bored. Tell me about you… your family or friends or anything.” Louis demanded. When there was no reaction from curly’s side he looked at him with a ‘comeonnn’.  
“I wanted..” when his voice came out a pitch higher than he expected , Harry cleared his throat and started again. “I wanted to be a musician you know. There was a time, when music was my everything. I learned to play guitar when I was seven years old and my biggest dream was to travel everywhere and make people happy with my guitar and the songs which I wrote.” Harry looked everywhere but Louis who was leaning close to Harry with a smile on his lips.  
“Are you dead?”  
“What?” Harry asked the boy.  
“You are talking like you are dead. You are still alive mate, you can do whatever the fuck you want in your life. You are.. How old are you?”  
“twenty one.”  
“Yeah you’re only twenty one years old and you are talking like you are some eighty one year old grandpa.” Louis huffed and shook his head. “Now, tell about your family. What’s your full name anyway? Harry..?”  
Harry was debating on whether to tell this boy or not. He clenched and unclenched his jaw for a few times and thought fuck it. “Styles. It’s Harry styles.”  
Harry could feel the air around them thickening with tension. He was afraid to look at Louis face. Then the boy was stammering when he said. “You are Styles..You. are. Harry. Styles. wow I am sitting in my backyard in the middle of the night with Harry styles.” His eyes were bulged and his mouth was a small o. Harry smiled.  
Then the boy blurted out “It was your mother who started dating some guy right after your father died.”  
Harry’s face turned pale and he turned his face away. Of course every single person would know about every single thing that has happened in his life. He shouldn’t have said who he was. Then Louis was sitting in front of him with a sheepish look on his face. “Sorry Harry, it’s just came out of my mouth. It was everywhere, in those magazines and TV.. sorry okay? Really sorry.”  
“It’s alright Louis I’m used to it.” Harry waved his hand. “The latest news about the Styles is, my mother filed a case against me, just in case you wanted to know.” It came out a lot harsher than he meant and he felt guilty for it when he saw Louis’ face falling. Harry felt an urgency crashing in his bones because this boy’s face should never fall. It should always stay happy. An image of Louis with red rimmed eyes and damp cheek came into his mind and Harry cursed involuntarily “Shit”. He never wanted to see this boy cry or not even sad. “Louis, look I didn’t mean to say it harshly. Just look at me.”  
The blue eyed boy then looked up at him with his signature blinding smile.  
“Maybe your mum liked her boyfriend very much you know? Maybe he was strong enough to lift her up from where she fell down when your dad died. Plus you can’t blame anyone who is in love.”  
Harry turned his face away.

Twenty minutes later Harry was sitting, his legs crossed on the ground with his right hand supporting his forehead which was propped up on his knee. He felt the small hand of Louis squeezing his shoulder. “Don’t worry Harry. Everything will be fine in the morning.”  
Harry lowered his hand and raised his head slowly to look at Louis. “You are saying me?” He asked with both of his hands pointing towards his chest. “You are telling don’t worry to me Louis? I can book a flight right now and fuck off from all these crap if I want. What about you?” He asked pointing his finger at the boy sitting next to him. He had that casual look on his face again, and Harry wanted to shake that expression away from that face and wanted to replace it with the serious and worried face of Liam. “The way you are handling your life, can get you into big troubles Louis. Do you realise that?” Harry was getting frustrated at Louis’ attitude towards life. For a brief second he thought about sending him to one of those regular motivational classes that were held in their company for all the employees. “Life is not just about fun and young and wild. Sometimes you have to be serious in life.”  
Louis wriggled his bum a bit and slumped to the ground in a more comfortable way. “Harry, let me guess, you were very serious in your life, right? And what happened? You have gotten into big troubles too.” Harry stared at him and Louis continued looking up at the sky. “Nobody knows a thing about what will happen in the future, neither do I. So I do what my heart tells me. In the future I don’t want to blame anyone in my life that my life got ruined because of you or because of what you said or did. No matter what happens in my life I will know that it’s because of me. It’s because of what I did. And I’ll be happy.”  
Louis then turned his head to find harry looking at him with big green eyes full of awe. “That wasn’t too much, right?” Louis asked clearly embarrassed by saying all those for opening up that much. Harry shook his head and smiled looking straight into his eyes. Louis looked back at his face puzzled and jumped up from where he was sitting, making Harry jump. “This is funnn…” He whisper shouted “And just remember Harry, when you think about this night in the future when you are an old wrinkled potato sack you will laugh.”  
Harry felt his mouth stretching with his wide smile and his heart filling with something, the more he looked at the boy who was standing before him.  
***  
Louis turned around to look at his home for the last time and whispered “I’ll come back baby. With Greg.”

***  
They hired a cab and reached the dock at 5.30 in the morning. The first thing Harry did was find a shop to buy some cloths for him. He was very uncomfortable throughout the whole journey from Doncaster to Liverpool with the significant lack of boxers. Louis went to the office to deal with the tickets while Harry went to a street vendor to buy a pair of jeans, one white t-shirt, a flannel shirt, a boxer brief, an aviator and a tooth brush. After a quick breakfast they checked into the ferry.  
Louis was waving at an imaginary crowd, who were gathered on the dock, all the way up to the top of the boat. Harry followed him shaking his head in fondness. They spent most of their time on top of the boat talking with people and playing with kids. Watching Louis playing with kids gave Harry twists in his stomach which he stubbornly made his mind to accept as seasickness. They went inside the boat for breakfast and lunch and stayed on the top till afternoon.  
Harry was leaning on the railing to look at the sea beneath him. A laughing Louis with pink cheeks and tousled hair joined him.  
“What are you laughing at?”  
“Nothing… that kid over there is so funny.” He pointed at a boy around 10 who was now skipping away to his parents. You are funny. Harry wanted to say.  
They stood there in silence watching the blue sky and the blue sea.  
“Harry… have you ever jumped into water? It’s so fun, like you will go deep in to the water for a few seconds. Everything around us will be muffled; only the sound of bubbles will be there. And finally when we come up above the surface every sound around us will crash into your ear.” He looked at Harry who was still looking down. “Wanna try it now?”  
Harry took a double take at the boy and stepped away from the railing. “Louis I think we need to go inside.”  
Louis laughed. “You are scared that I will push you into the sea. Aren't you Harry?”  
“No I’m not. I’m just being practical.” He said walking backward smiling at Louis “You know, I will never kno-“ and fell on his back when he stumbled on a rope. By the time he stood up rubbing his bum Louis was guffawing with a hand clutched on the railing.  
***  
They reached the Dublin port around three in the afternoon. Louis was so jittery and excited and was talking miles a minute. Harry couldn’t pay attention to whatever he was saying because his mind was racing to who knows where. This is it. Harry could feel that it was the end that he dreaded, saying goodbye to Louis. As much as Harry wanted to accept Louis’ invitation and stay here with this boy, he didn't want to. Maybe it’s because Louis already have a boyfriend. What? No. He mentally slapped himself. Maybe it’s because he felt like this could be a new start, that he could give himself a new chance. Maybe it’s because he wanted to go back to London just to see his mom and cry on her shoulder.  
But all Harry wanted to do right now was to scream on top of his lungs at this boy that ‘don’t go’. This boy with his feathery brown hair, which was now dancing in the wind through the window of the cab, with his blue eyes and with his heart warming smile stole Harry’s heart away. Harry doesn’t even know if he’ll see Louis again in his life. He felt nausea settling in his stomach when he thought about it. He never thought saying goodbye to this boy would be this hard. But he knew one thing that Louis saved him. Louis came into his already crashed life like a tsunami and wiped all away… wiped all the things away that were dragging Harry backward from being him, dragging him backward from smiling, from enjoying, from being happy… from living.  
Louis was jumping in his seat when they reached Pearse Street. He stepped out of the cab and paid the cabby. Harry stood there with a lump in heart watching every move Louis, tucking away the minute details and movements, such as the way the pinkie of Louis’ right hand moved gracefully when he took the currency out of his wallet, to remember when Harry needed some sunshine in his life. Louis then waved at the cab driver with a bright smile which could rival the sun and moon and stars. Harry shook his head.  
Louis then turned to look at a shop just across the road with a board saying Greg & Co. Travel Agency, then looked back at Harry with excitement written all over his face. “That’s it. That’s Greg’s office. Come.” He tugged at Harry’s shirt and when he saw that the Curly head is not moving he looked in his eyes questioningly.  
“Bye Louis.”  
“Wha- you’re not coming?”  
“Always be like this.” Harry couldn't stop looking at the blue ocean which was Louis’s eyes. The boy was so beautiful inside out and Harry wanted to hold on to that blue forever if it was always this powerful and magnetic enough call him back from ending himself. The only way Harry wanted to end himself now was by drowning in that blue ocean. The blue eyed boy blinked.  
“What? Don’t you want to meet Greg?”  
Harry took a step closer to Louis. “Louis.” He said the boy’s name looking into his eyes, leaned closer and kissed him on his right cheekbone. When he looked at Louis his eyes were closed.  
“Goodbye Louis.” The boy blinked his eyes open. He raised his hand and brushed his forefinger lightly across Harry’s cheek with a smile and warmth in his eyes. Harry didn't want to look away. The next second the boy was turning away with a sprint in his legs, running across the road towards the small office.  
Harry stood there for a second and turned around. He could feel the tears prickling in the corner of his eyes. But this time it was not because of the heartbreak.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies :) fifth chapter is here. This chapter is for DiamondD for being a wonderful person that she is..:)   
> and dont worry aorlo,everything is going to be perfect.  
> Sorry for all the grammatical errors and other mistakes.Plus I envy you people whose first language is English because grammar. Enjoy:)
> 
> the song that came to my mind when I wrote this chapter was 'Love Lost' by Temper Trap. It suits their love well. 
> 
> Warning : I have used alot of profanities in this chapter ;)

It’s been 4 months, 17 days, 10 hours, and 20 seconds since Harry had left Dublin… or Louis. And it’s been only 5 seconds since Harry had stopped thinking about Louis…

***  
The first thing he did right after he landed in London was calling Liam and arranging a meeting with his mom in the company’s conference hall for the next day and apologizing for missing in action for three days. Liam told him that it was alright and Harry’s mom was really upset about him. The next day itself he called his mother and her lawyer to his office, apologized for his rude behaviour and whatever that made Anne to file a case against him, which surprised Anne and her lawyer.   
Harry had a warm smile on his face when he addressed his mom “Mrs. Cox, Whatever happened between us which lead to this… was issues related to our personal life. I don’t want this company to get involved in that. And for that reason I don’t want to take away your life long hard work… You and Mr. Styles started this company from a small room, and if there is a reason behind the styles group of Industries to reach one of the top three positions in the UK, it is what you and my father did in the last 20 years. This company belongs to you as much as it belongs to me.”  
Anne’s eyes were brimming with tears when Harry finished his words. “And I want you to have the same position, respect and responsibility which you held for the past twenty years as long as this firm exists. I’m ready to sign all your demands.”  
Anne then wiped a stray tear and a flabbergasted Liam and Anne’s lawyer gaped at Harry.   
“Welcome back to the Styles group Mom.” He said with a wide smile. “And Liam I want you to arrange a meeting with all the shareholders tomorrow. I just want to see their faces when I tell them that mom is back in action.” Harry’s voice boomed. And that was that.   
When he emerged from the conference room whistling a song waving at Perry, Liam was trying to catch up with him. He had awe in his voice when he asked “Harry man, what happened? You are-”he then gestured all of Harry “-you are… different.”  
Harry smiled brightly at him “Oh am I?”  
“Yeah… no offense but what you did in the past 15 minutes were way much more than what you did in the past six months.”  
Harry just laughed and everyone around him looked at him with a smile on his face. 

***  
Harry couldn’t stop thinking about a certain blue eyed boy was the thing. It was levelling up to an unhealthy stage and obsession. He has not stopped thinking about Louis for the past four and half months. He would open his eyes in the morning, every single day… with butterflies in his tummy and Louis’ blinding smile in his mind. He would think about how Louis pulled funny faces at kids when he is alone in his office. He would think about how beautiful Louis was when he drives back to his home listening to sappy love songs. He would think about how his lips felt against Louis’ cheek and how Louis’ lips felt against the corner of his mouth when he lay in his bed late at night, all alone in his new flat. He would then close his eyes thinking how nice it would be if Louis was lying right next to him, talking nonsenses. He would then open his eyes at that thought, would hit the bed with his fist and would bury his face in a pillow and would try to sleep. Every night, every day was filled with the thoughts of blue eyes, tan skin, mischievous smile, feathery brown hair… and to sum it up Harry was fucked.   
The first week that Harry came back from Dublin he was attending meetings after meetings in the Styles Industries to pick his company up from its fallen state. He was always running here and there in the Head Office in London with a permanent smile on his face, solving all the problems one by one, making everyone wonder what has gotten into him.   
He started doing a lot of things which he never thought about doing again in his life. Those things are listed below.  
i) Singing in the shower.  
ii) Going to shitty pubs with Liam and his mates where there was cheap booze and music.  
iii) Dusting off his guitar from the top cabin of his cupboard and playing his favourite songs.  
iv) Visiting his mom and stepdad once in a month which was awarded with hugs and kisses and loads of sorry from Anne.   
v) Smiling.  
vi) Laughing.  
vii) Living.  
Everything was because of Louis. Harry’s every thought was consumed with Louis. He was everywhere. Sometimes the pads of his fingers will tingle when he thought about Louis. Sometimes his heart will lurch inside his chest with sadness when he thinks about Louis smiling, hugging and sleeping contently with a faceless man named Greg. But he will ignore that thought and will focus on the way he looked at Harry right before he turned around to run to his boyfriend’s shop.   
Whenever there was a conflict in his office he would immediately think what Louis would have done if he was right here instead of him in this situation, and he would do just like that. The outcome of that? Happy faces and satisfied smiles.  
One day he felt like he should move on from his non existent one way relationship with a boy whom he has known for only 41 hours. The next day he went on a blind date with a girl, which Liam arranged, but felt like she was not as fun and loud as Louis and never contacted her again.   
***  
Lottie was watching TV still in her uniform with a cup of tea balanced between her knees, a plate of cookies in her left thigh, a cookie in her right hand and remote in her left hand. She skipped past channels after channels… even a channel which showed a familiar face. She dropped the cookie in the plate absently and went back to the channel which showed that face and dropped the remote too when she saw Harry talking animatedly facing hundreds of microphones in front of him. ‘Harry Styles, the youngest CEO in the UK of the Styles Industries, on the launch of their new radio station’ was running in a loop on the screen. He was in a grey suit grinning from ear to ear. Then someone asked something and he answered “Yeah… There is something behind launching a radio station…more like ‘someone’ behind it, who inspired me and made me think about this. He is kinda like a radio… doesn’t know how to stop talking. So..um… this radio station is for all the people out there who love their own voice more than anything else“ He chuckled quietly “Especially for you Louis.”  
Lottie’s mouth was wide open by the time the news changed into something else. Then she was yelling “Mom… Harry is Harry styles… He talked about Louis on TV.”  
***  
Harry was going through a report that Liam gave him in the morning. It was 12.45 and there was only 15 minutes to lunch, he silently hurrayed at the thought. That’s when Perrie poked her head inside his office.   
“May I?” She asked politely still lingering on the doorway.  
“Yup you should.” He said with a bright smile “Shoot it” taking his eyes away from the report in his hand.   
She closed the door behind her. “Sir, one Mr. Mark Tomlinson is asking for you. Um...he is kind of making a scene in the front lobby saying that he won’t leave until you talk to him in person. There is a woman, a boy around our age and a girl with him. We tried everything to settle it, but he’s not having any of it.”  
Harry’s heart was drumming inside his ribs from the second he heard ‘Tomlinson’. But for the sake of keeping his reputation as her boss, he acted nonchalantly. He then looked at the report in his hand and back at Perrie. “Tell him that I will meet them in five minutes and tell Michael to take them to the visitor’s room in the west wing. Umm.. yeah that’s it.”   
After Perrie left his office Harry was on the edge. He was excited and he was panicking. While walking towards the visitor’s room he was shaking with anticipation. He wished wished and wished that ‘the boy around our age’ would be Louis. But when he opened the door to the room it was Zyan, Lottie, Jay and Mark. Seeing him all of them stopped talking. He crossed the hall with a nervous smile and shook hands with Zayn and Mark, whose face was set into a stern and tensed one. Jay looked very tired and Lottie was surprised, maybe to see him in a fancy schmancy office in a fancy schmancy suit.   
Then Mark started “So I am going straight to the point Mr. Styles.” Harry cringed inside hearing ’Mr.Styles’ from Mark. ”I would like to know where my son is.” Yes just like Harry expected. “Just tell me where he is and dial him or something. We want to talk to him.” He then rubbed his palm on his forehead.   
Harry was struggling for the right words.  
Then Jay looked at Harry. “Love, we know he is with you. Eleanor told us everything. We just wanted to hear from him just to make sure he is alright. We miss him. He-“ her voice broke “-he has not made a single call or mailed us in four months… he never does something like that. He used to call me everyday… I know you are taking care of my baby, but I just want to tell him that we don’t have any problem with him for loving you just because you both are boys. Just-“ she then broke into a silent cry and Mark’s hand was running up and down to soothe her.   
Harry will never get what made him admit that “Yes he is with me and he’s perfectly alright, he is absolutely fine.” His hands were shaking when he thought about what he said. He may have said it because he didn’t want to make Louis’ parents more upset than they were already.  
Zyan was staring blankly at him, Lottie fiddling with her bracelet. Mark leaned closer to him away from the sofa. “We just want to see him and hear his voice… can you… can you tell him that we really want to see him?”   
“Yeah.” Harry nodded frantically.   
“Where is he now?” Zayn asked from where he was seated on the farthest corner of the sofa.   
Harry was sweating. His mind was running ahead of his brain and tongue for coming with the right answer and blurted out “He is in Dublin.”   
Even Lottie raised her head at this. Harry was strangling himself in his mind for saying the stupidest thing. “uh… he went to Dublin for a week to visit a friend there.”

The Tomlinson family and Zayn left London after a lunch with Harry which he insisted them to have. When Jay became more emotional and Mark became more upset Harry convinced them that he will bring Louis to their home this Saturday but how… he didn’t know. It was Thursday and if he went to the airport right now he could reach Dublin by today itself, he could then stay in a hotel, go and meet Louis the next day… God thinking about meeting that boy again is making his tummy squirm pleasantly. He called Liam and told him that he is going to Dublin and will be off till Sunday. He then went to his flat changed into a plain black t shirt with a jacket and a skinny jeans, packed some clothes and toiletries, locked the flat and left.   
***  
Harry was restless throughout the whole flight journey, thinking over and over about why the hell he promised them that he will bring Louis home this weekend. He was ready to jump out of his skin when he reached Dublin. He checked into a hotel which was a ten minutes drive away from Greg’s office. He wanted to see the blue eyes and sunshiny smile right that moment. The thought about Louis is in his close proximity was doing weird things to Harry, like dancing samba in the shower and wailing Pompeii on top of his lungs in the balcony.  
***  
Harry has been waiting from nine in the morning for Greg to open his shop. He was standing on the pavement across the shop, leaning on a pole, with a coffee in his hand. It was the same spot where he looked at the beaming face of Louis for the last time. Minutes later he saw a man coming hurriedly to the closed shop and opening it. Harry stopped sipping his coffee and detached himself from the pole. He crossed the road and there he was in front of Greg’s travel agency. He stood there with closed eyes thinking about what to say and how to make an introduction. Someone coughed from his back and Harry jumped slightly. He turned around and it was a woman, around 25. She had an impatient look on her face.   
“Are you going to wait here or..?” Harry quickly opened the door and let the lady inside the shop and entered the shop following her. The man he saw earlier was now sitting on a chair behind the counter scrolling through his ipad. He was big, quiffed and a hipster. Harry cleared his throat and the man looked up from the screen and smiled when he saw Harry standing there awkwardly. “Please be seated, I am Greg and how can I help you?”  
Harry took the chair in front of the counter. “Um.. I’m Harry Styles.” He extended his hand to Greg, who had a comical expression on his face clearly astonished by why Harry styles out of all the people was visiting his office, but shook his hand nonetheless.   
“I.. I’m Greg James and I’ve heard a lot about you... wow.” He paused with a smile which had nervous written all over it in full caps.  
Harry smiled thinking about Louis blabbering about him to Greg. “Actually I’ve heard quiet a lot about you too.”   
Greg’s eyebrows shoot up at that. “How..” he shuffled in his seat “have you heard about me?”  
“Louis? He told me about you. He wouldn’t stop talking about you mate.” There was a smallest of smiles in Harry’s face when he said it.  
“Which Louis?”  
What. “What?” Harry thought he heard him wrong but what?  
“Which Louis are you talking about?”  
“About how many Louis do you know? I am talking about your Louis? Your boyfriend?”  
“I don’t know anyone named Louis.” The man said abruptly.  
The thickness of awkwardness in the room was increasing on a rate of nautical miles per second.  
Harry felt a sudden urge to hit this man in his eye which was covered by a thick rimmed glass. He sighed and put his right elbow on the table leaning a bit from his seat. “Look Greg, if you want t-“  
“Can we talk about this somewhere else?” The man said hurriedly glancing at the woman who was now sitting behind a computer listening discreetly to what was happening.  
“Yup”

 

Ten minutes later they were in a restaurant. Greg was talking, but all Harry could register was Greg broke up with Louis or more like Greg rejected Louis the day Harry left Dublin. Greg was in the middle of a sentence and Harry interrupted him.  
“You have.. how could you Greg?” he asked while pressing his thumb and forefinger in the corners of his eyes.   
Greg opened and closed his mouth a few times. “Don’t make me feel guilty, alright? I didn’t tell him to runaway from home.”  
“But he still came to meet you and live with you. He was in love with you and I thought you loved him too. He…he left his entire world behind for you. And why on earth did you do such a thing?”  
“Because he is cra..zy.” Greg said putting both his hands on the desk and leaning onto it to emphasize his point which he said in a whiny voice. “He was talking about marriage and babies. That scared the shit out of me. You know him, he is such a kid, still believes that he is only eighteen years old and that everything is rainbows and unicorns. He lives in a world of dreams that boy.” He finished with a huff and took a sip of his tea.   
Harry shook his head and clutched his mug tightly. “And you proved to him that his world of dreams doesn’t exist.. because people like you live here.” Harry could feel the blood rising on his cheeks with anger.  
“Look Mr. Styles, you are very much respected and all that but this is my personal issue. And I don’t think you should interfere in this.”  
“Right.” Silence followed them for a minute.   
Greg broke the silence by asking. “Lou never mentioned anything about you, and why are you here asking for him? Like… you travelled from London to Dublin… What’s the deal?” There was something in his voice which Harry recognized as jealousy.  
“Nothing. He’s um.. important to me.”  
***  
Before leaving Greg’s office Harry saved Greg’s number in his phone and asked the whereabouts of Louis. When he answered that he don’t have clue about it Harry looked at him incredulously. He then asked for Niall’s address and left the place without even saying a bye.   
Niall’s house was on the top of a pub in Wicklow. It was a small one and there was a lot of plants and flowers of all colours. Harry loved it the moment he saw the house. People were milling in and out of the pub even when it was nearing eleven in the morning. Harry knocked on the door and waited. He could hear footsteps approaching the door. The door opened and there was a blond boy standing dressed from head to toe. Seeing Harry the boy’s jaw dropped and he didn’t do anything to close it.  
“You are Harry Styles…”  
Harry was struggling hard not to laugh at the blond’s face. “Yes that I am.”  
The blond then recovered and shook his hand with Harry. “I’m Niall Horan, did my final project in your share trading company, the styles Securities. Jesus Christ, you are really here. I can’t believe this.” Harry snickered. “Are you by any chance here to recruit me to your company or something? I mean my project was pretty good.” Harry shook his head biting his lips with amusement.   
“I am not, but if you are interested I can arrange something like that.”  
“Oh…My GodI’mdone. Umm..sorry come in come in.”  
Harry followed Niall into the house. It was a small one with two bedrooms and a kitchen. He was on an assumption that it would be Niall’s family house but now it is clear that this house is where bachelors lived. Harry sat on a sofa upon Niall’s instruction while he went to the kitchen for bringing tea.  
“So… why are you here?” Niall asked while blowing the tea.   
“I came here to ask you about Louis.”  
Niall stopped what he was doing and there was a million watt smile on his face. “You are friends with Louis? That fackin wanker never told me about it.”  
Harry laughed at the insulted face of Niall. “We are not best friends not even close, we just met on a train journey and stuff… I wanted to talk to him about something important. Do you know where he lives?”  
“Here.” Niall said taking a sip and Harry spluttered some of his tea on to the floor and apologized quickly.  
“Here?” Harry looked around “Uh…he lives here?” his voice squeaked in the end.  
“Aah.. you are lucky that you are famous or I would be rolling my eyes now.”  
“No. Feel free to roll your eyes.” Harry said seriously looking guilty for nothing.  
“Oh man… I was just kidding mate. Anyway, Louis works in the pub downstairs. It’s his shift now. He will be here by five o’ clock. You can meet him now if you want, can have some pints too.”  
“No it’s alright I will wait…here if you don’t mind?”  
“No. Not at all. But..um I was about to go home.” He said while rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, and suddenly dropped it ”Never mind. I’ll go home by three.” And slouched further on the seat. “How about FIFA?”  
By the time it was nearing three they have played five rounds of FIFA had eaten half of the food that was in the fridge watched some shitty reality shows and drank three bottles of beer. Harry felt really happy and content. He connected with Niall instantly and got to know that the bloke is doing some course in finance after his UNI and is also working part time in the pub downstairs. Louis and Niall were flatmates and best friends in UNI. His family is in Mullingar and he plays guitar. If Harry thought Louis was sun this boy was a supernova, all laughs and jokes. Harry’s stomach was aching by how much he laughed.   
Niall didn’t ask a thing about why Harry was here or why Harry travelled all the way from London to see Louis. That made him like the irish blond more. When Niall left the house after three both of their mobile numbers were saved in their phones and Harry promised him that he will consider him in his company after he finishes his course.   
As soon as Niall left the same restlessness that was there yesterday attacked Harry again. He turned the TV off, cleared the empty beer bottles and crisps bags and plopped down on the sofa. He closed his eyes.

Harry woke up to a familiar voice, which haunted him for the past four months, cursing loudly. He opened his eyes and Louis was there. Wow Louis was there… standing in the doorway with a bag of groceries in his hand. Harry could feel his heartbeat picking up.   
“Hey… What a surprise… Harry…” Louis face was tired, he was tired. There were bags under his eyes, he was pale and had facial hair. He looked different standing there in a shaggy jeans and hoodie. There was no smile on his face and there was no mischievous glint in his eyes. But he was trying his best to smile.   
Harry stood up from where he was sitting and smiled brightly at him. “Hey Lou”   
“What are you doing here?” he asked while walking slowly towards the kitchen and dumping the grocery bag on the counter.   
Harry sat down where he was previously seated. “Just.. I came to know that you are here.. so thought it would be nice if I give you a surprise visit and..um .. you know.”  
Louis looked from where he was putting a kettle on the stove. “Do you want tea?”  
“No. We drank a lot of it, me and Niall.”  
“Oh you met Niall!”  
“Yup”   
Louis was not talking a miles per second and he was slow in everything. He was not jumping around, he was not yelling he was not rolling his eyes. Harry sighed. He wanted to go back to the time when they were in Louis’ house and wanted to convince him that running away to Dublin will be a very bad idea. He wanted that mischievous smile back. Maybe he’s just tired because of work. Harry can wait a few more hours. Louis came back with a steaming cup of tea cradled in his hand and sat opposite to him.   
“So.. how are you?” Harry asked breaking the silence.   
“Good good.” The boy answered without looking at Harry. He was not making any eye contact with Harry. He was avoiding him. Harry wanted to shake him and make him look in the eyes.  
“Really?”  
“Yup” He said over enthusiastically and sighed right after he said it.  
“And..?”   
“And everything is going great” Louis said it with a fake grin that never reached his eyes and never crinkled the corner of his eyes.  
“You hurt me Louis.” Harry said out of nowhere and Louis face fell and he looked at him. Their eyes met. “You could have contacted me Louis” Harry’s eyes were welling up suddenly, “you could have told me everything… I’m not that impossible to reach. I… I would have been there for you in a second.” Louis shook his head, he also looked like he was struggling not to let the tears fall.   
“I didn’t want to.”   
Harry shook his head. “Why?”   
“Go away Harry.” His voice broke in the last syllable and Harry stood up.  
“I won’t. because I came here to take you back to England.”  
Louis also stood up from where he was sitting. “I don’t want to go back there.”  
Harry sighed angrily. “Lou, you need to leave your stubbornness and all those shit, alright? You are coming with me.”  
“No I am not and you can’t force me.”   
Harry was in front of Louis in the blink of an eye. The shorter boy was looking up at him with anger and tear filled eyes. God he was so stubborn. “You are so coming with me Louis, I am not letting you destroy yourself here. Pack yo-“  
“Who do you think you are?” Louis was seething with anger and tears were streaming down his cheeks. “Just because this happened to me it doesn’t mean that it’s your chance to say ‘told you so’ do you understand?” He was yelling by the time he finished it.   
Harry sighed and crossed his hands across his chest. “Yes I understood. I’ll keep that in mind. Can we leave now?” Louis looked at him with a scoff.   
Harry was showed down to the sofa by two dainty hands and the boy stood there wiping his tears with the back of his hands. “Why are you doing this Harry?”  
“I don’t want to tell you why I am doing this alright? now go and pack whatever you want.”   
“No. I don’t want you to do anymore favour for me. Just leave please..?” He looked so vulnerable and tiny standing there with dampened cheeks and red rimmed eyes which Harry never wanted to see in his life. “You have already done a lot for me..” He shook his head.   
“I have done a lot for you? I have done a lot for you Louis? If I’m alive today it’s only because of you fool” Harry didn’t notice that he was near Louis again until he was mere centimetres away from the boy’s face. “This is the second chance in my life… which you have given me Louis you.” Both the boys were shaking and Harry could see the fresh tears that were forming in  
the blue eyes. “Do you know how successful I am today? Our company is in a higher position than when dad was alive. I solved all the problems in my company like a pro, my mom is so proud of me and now I understand her and I love her.” His voice was getting louder and he didn’t give a shit about it, because seeing this boy so vulnerable was making him do so many things. “I’m making everyone around me happy and they love me. Do you want to know why? You. What I am today is just because of you Louis. Whenever there is a problem I would think what Louis would do if he was there and I will do just that. And you…”   
Harry was breathing hard and the boy in front of him hasn’t blinked once. His lips were turned down and they were quivering. He then blinked and tears were falling down like waterfalls. That was it for Harry he wrapped his arms around the boy and hugged him tightly rubbing his hand up and down the boy’s back. Louis was shaking and Harry could feel his shirt getting wet, he hugged him more tightly and kissed on top of his head. Harry led them to the sofa still hugging Louis. He sat down and tried to make Louis sit down too. But Louis was climbing on the sofa with his thighs straddling Harry’s hips and arms wrapping around his neck. Harry hesitated for a moment but wrapped his hands around Louis’ middle.  
Harry was rocking them back and forth slowly saying sweet words to Louis. He could feel the sobbing and tears from where Louis had buried his face, where his neck and shoulder met. Harry felt like it was the first time that Louis had let his guard down and cried. So Harry waited minutes and minutes. After what felt like hours Louis stopped crying and sighed. It was getting really dark. Harry brought his hand on the nape of Louis neck and petted the hair there. He then tapped his neck, telling silently to look at him.   
“I am worthless.” It was the faintest of mumbling. But it broke Harry’s heart.   
“No you are not.“ Harry said sternly and kissed his forehead. Louis then looked up at him. God… this boy was breaking his heart. Harry groaned and pecked him on his lips.  
Both of them were shocked at what has happened. Seconds ticked away and Louis was the first to take any action. He detached himself from Harry’s lap and stood up looking everywhere but Harry.  
Harry didn’t know what to do so he asked “I am starving. Do you have anything in your kitchen?”  
“Yup. There’s pasta.”

They ate the dinner almost silently. Harry tried his best with some lame jokes to crack Louis up but the boy just smiled one or two times. They were washing dishes and Harry was humming a tune and he stopped abruptly to look at Louis who looked back at him puzzled.   
“Remember the night in that hotel?”  
“Yeah…”  
“Okay so I am about to tell you a tragic truth. Hold yourself together Lou.” Harry said grinning wide.   
Louis put a show of hugging himself with his hands which wrapped around his middle protectively.  
“The man on the front desk thought that you were a callboy.”   
“Noooo.. no way.” Louis whined with a funny look on his face. Harry fist pumped in his mind and smiled a ‘that’s what I am talking about’ one.  
“Yes way.”  
“Really?”  
“Remember when I told you that I’ll handle this but you were being… you” Harry flicked Louis’ nose with his finger which was wet with water. Louis swatted his hand away smiling widely.  
“Oh dear… I was such a fool.” Louis shook his head smiling. “I was such a big fucking fool.” Then his smile was fading. “That’s why all of this shit is happening to me.” He was then washing his hands leaving the rest of the dishes in the sink. “What have I done with my life?” Harry sighed and washed his hands. When he turned around Louis was nowhere near him.   
Harry saw him sitting on the couch with his knees drawn up and head buried between his knees. He sat near him and placed his hand tentatively on Louis’ shoulder. “Louis, look at me.”  
The boy shook his head. “I always think about what I should do to make him believe that I am mature enough and I am not a fool. But I fail. Every single time. I don’t understand anything .” His voice was muffled. Harry could make it from the way the boy’s shoulder was shaking that he is crying again. Harry clenched his jaw and punched that idiot named Greg in his mind till his imaginary hand was bleeding. “I… I used to call him a lot.”  
“I’ll tell you what you should do. Throw him out of your life.” Louis shook his head from where his head was placed between his knees and Harry continued. “No matter how much you cry he is not going to come back Louis. He would have come back to you a long back if he wanted to… Lou he’s not even thinking about you. He’s happy.”  
This time Louis raised his head. His face was red and his nose was redder. “You met him?”   
“Yes”  
“What did he say?”  
“Lou, Greg’s chapter is over. Accept that and you’ll feel a lot better.” Louis turned his face away at that and Harry stood up aggressively stomping his foot on the floor muttering damnit. He turned around slowly when an idea hit him. “Do you have a picture of him with you? Burn it and flush him out of your life. What do you say?”   
“I don’t have one.”  
“Shit. Okay you will call him and shower him with profanities, ah that’s even better.” With that Harry was sprinting off to the table where he left his phone earlier. Louis followed him with ‘Do you have his number?’ and ‘nos’ and ‘don’t do thats’. But it was too late, Harry had already dialled the number. When Louis heard the faint sound of a phone ringing he froze. “It’s ringing.” Harry said excitedly. “Say whatever the fuck that comes to your mouth. Okay?” Then a small voice from the phone said ‘hello’.  
“Hello Greg… It’s Harry. Just a sec.”  
‘hello’  
The phone was in Louis’ hand now. He looked at it like a ticking bomb and back at Harry who was encouraging him with his hands and soundless words which highly resembled to ‘fucking do it’.   
‘hello’  
“Hello Greg?”  
‘Louis?’  
“Hello… I wanted to say that…” his voice was shaking.  
‘Yes Louis’  
“You fucker-“ Harry cheered without making any sound.  
‘what?’  
“You son of bitch, who do you think you’re, huh? Fucking scumbag-“  
‘Louis are y-‘  
“you thought I will come begging after you huh? But you’re wrong you filthy cocksucker.”  
‘what th-‘  
“FEISIGH DO THOIN TUILLI”   
With that Louis cut the call and gave it back to Harry with shaking hands. Harry was standing there with a wide smile. Suddenly Louis launched himself at Harry knocking the air out of his lungs. Harry wrapped his hands around the boy and lifted him from the ground. They both were giggling and when Harry put Louis back on the ground still hugging him tightly he asked or almost whispered.   
“What was that you said before you ended the call?”  
Louis looked up at him mischievously making his heart swell with love. “It’s irish. It means fuck your own ass bastard.”   
Then they were laughing. When the last wave of laugh subsided Harry just leaned down and kissed him making Louis’ breath hitch in his throat. The only thing Harry could feel was the lips that were moving against his and the fingers that were threading through his hair. Then Louis pulled away and turned towards his bedroom leaving a ‘rooted to the ground’ Harry behind. He stopped on the doorway to his bedroom.   
“Um… you can sleep in Niall’s room.” And the door was closed.

Louis woke up to the smell of bacons and eggs and his stomach rumbled. He went to the bathroom and took a shower and did his morning routine. When he entered the kitchen Harry was arranging the food on the breakfast counter. Louis smiled at him and Harry loosened up and smiled widely gesturing Louis to sit down.   
Louis was smiling more, to most of the things Harry said. Harry was proud of himself by the time they finished breakfast. That’s when someone knocked on the front door. Louis was scrambling the last piece of egg into his spoon and Harry stood up from the chair to get the door.   
He walked to the door humming a song and licking his fingers. When the door opened there was Greg, standing outside with a pleading look on his face. When he saw Harry his face became surprised.  
“Harry?”  
“Greg?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey.. If you read till the end to see this note I'm proud of you dude. *digs a hole for myself to hide*


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya everyone :D I'm sorry for taking this much time to update. Because life. I was so busy with work and stuff, hardly got time to sleep and this chapter is shorter than others. Yeah thats it. 
> 
> Apologies for the grammatical and other errors. I love you for reading this :):)

“What are you doing here?” Greg sounded like a Lion claiming its territory. Harry opened the door widely and let him in. Greg was already walking towards Louis’ bedroom when Harry closed the front door behind him to give a reply.   
Harry cleared his throat. “Um… He’s in the kitchen.”  
Greg stopped in his track. “Oh. Okay”   
That’s when Louis came out of the kitchen with a cup of tea in his hand. “Harry who was th-Greg?”   
Harry could feel the way Louis’ body froze from where he was standing near the front door. He was clutching the tea cup in his hand and his eyes were ready to pop out of their socket. Greg started walking towards him running his fingers through his hair. Louis looked like he was stoned. Greg then chuckled without humour and brought his hand near Louis face. Louis shut his eyes and squeezed his eyelids like he was in pain.   
Harry was feeling nauseated. He felt like he was intruding a private moment and that thought itself made his stomach churn unpleasantly. Harry didn’t know what to do, he couldn’t move from where he was standing. He stood there and watched as Greg dragged his thumb through that beautiful curve of Louis’ eyebrow.   
Louis couldn’t move, he couldn’t open his eyes. Till yesterday every fibre in his body was longing to see Greg, his heart was breaking every time Greg rejected his call.   
The first two weeks after Greg told him that ‘Lou… I don’t think we are going to work out’, Louis would go and wait in front of Greg’s shop with pleading eyes to ask him why he thought this wouldn’t work out. He stopped waiting in front of his shop when one day Greg dragged him behind the shop to a deserted alley and yelled at him that he was being a child and what they had was nothing but a silly relationship that should have ended when the university ended. Louis lost it that day and cried shamelessly in front of the man who broke his heart. He asked ‘why he talked about marriage and future in that party’ between tears and the answer he got was ‘I was drunk’.   
Louis was a pathetic mess after that. He stayed in cheap hotels for the first two weeks crying to sleep and with Greg’s words ringing in his head, when all his money was over he didn’t have any choice except to call Niall. Niall welcomed him wholeheartedly and he helped him to find a job. They moved in together to a small house above the pub where they both worked. Niall never asked anything about why Louis was sad, because he knew Louis’ and Greg’s relation and he knew why Louis came to Ireland and he knew why Louis was alone, living with him in Wicklow instead of living with Greg in Dublin. But bless his good heart he never asked anything about it, instead cuddled Louis to sleep and took him to clubs and pubs on weekends to cheer him up. He made delicious dinner whenever he could and rented Louis’ favourite movies to watch.   
He never cried after he loose it in front of Greg in that alley, but yesterday was a different story. He couldn’t control himself from losing it front of Harry… Harry. Louis opened his eyes fast when green eyes and warm breath flashed in his mind. He looked around and saw Harry staring right at him with a frown on his face. Louis didn’t want to be here. He wanted it to be yesterday night where they ate the delicious pasta that Harry made, he wanted to be there in that boys lap with his face buried in the crook of his neck, he wanted it to be today’s morning where everything was so peaceful and serene. Greg cleared his throat and Louis looked back at him.   
“Louis, I want to talk to you. Please?” Greg asked with that pleading look which Louis always found hard to say no. He could see from his peripheral vision Harry stumbling towards the kitchen with his head hanging low. He felt a pang in his chest but before he could acknowledge what it was Greg grabbed his hand and covered it with his big hands, making Louis close his eyes again. The touch was so familiar. He was longing for that touch so badly, till yesterday. Yesterday he let Harry kiss him and it was like something that he had never felt before. It was so gentle and full of care and lov- “Please don’t say no Lou… I really want to talk to you. I can explain.”   
“Yeah” that was barely audible coming out of his mouth. As much as he wanted to go and check upon Harry, he wanted to prove Greg that he was not the old goofy, childish boy anymore, that he is a lot mature and serious in his life. 

 

Louis was standing, leaning on the table in his room resting his bum on the edge of the table. Greg was sitting on the edge of his bed.   
“Lou… say something.” His voice has full of desperation in it.   
“You… You just..say what you want to say, I’ll listen.”  
“Right… I.. I’ve made a mistake. I didn’t have enough courage to think about a future with you… I was not brave enough to marry you and face your parents who don’t have any idea that you are with a boy. For the last four months I have been acting like I was strong and practical…that whatever I did was right, but yesterday… I don’t know Lou…”   
He was half listening to what Greg was saying and half thinking about what he is doing, because he was trying to forget this man and he just came back to his life without any warning, just like Harry did.   
“Give me one more chance…?”   
Louis raised his head in disbelief and shock at what he was hearing. Greg looked like he was pleading. “Please Louis… I was a jerk I know. I have put you through a lot. But I don’t want to anymore… I want to make it up to you… Please…”  
Louis felt his heart beat skipping and beating fast, his mouth went dry. After four months of rejection and ignorance Greg was overwhelming him with his apologies. Something crashed in his kitchen and the thought of a curly head and lanky limbs came running into his mind.  
“Greg…” that name felt foreign in his mouth. ”Give me a minute…?”  
“Yeah.”  
***  
Harry knew he was being pathetic, but his hands were shaking when he washed his face over and over in the kitchen sink. He thought about throwing Greg out of this house and yelling him that Louis is his, but Louis will most probably freak out and kick Harry out of this house if he did something like that. Harry felt restless and was on the verge of shouting something. The thought of competing with Greg made him angry and sad at the same time. The chances of him winning Louis’ heart was less than 5%, because Greg was the love of Louis’ life and for god’s sake he was planning on marrying that man and Harry was just someone whom he met on a train. Yeah that was it. He didn’t know how much of an impact he made in Harry’s life and how he saved him from ending himself. He will never understand that. He wanted so badly to rip his heart open and show Louis that how much he loved that blue eyed boy. “But he wouldn’t understand…” Harry whispered to no one.   
With that he turned away from the sink and went to the breakfast counter to clean it. He couldn’t help but glance at the living room to check what Louis and Greg were doing. When he found that they were not there anymore he looked at the door to Lou’s bedroom which was closed. This time Harry couldn’t control the shaking of his hand and the glass he was holding slipped out of his hold and hit the floor.  
“Shit.” He crouched on the floor and picked up the broken glasses. When he realised that he don’t have a dustpan with him, he sighed and stood up and Louis was standing in the doorway.   
Harry showed the glass piece in his hand to the boy in front of him dumbly. “Uh… I broke this, sorry.”  
“”No problem.” Louis waved his hand. His face was tensed and pale. Harry remained silent.  
“Why did he have to come now? Everything was going fine. What am I gonna do now Harry?” Louis was talking very fast. His nervousness was evident in his face and voice. “He asked me for a second chance. He asked for a second freaking chance Harry, but it’s too late. Its… ugh. I don’t even know what to say to him.”  
Harry clenched his jaw. Greg was being an asshole again. But Harry was sure that Louis can’t say no to that. Greg has so much of an influence on Louis whether it is to break him or to raise him up from the ashes. He grabbed the dustpan and crouched on the floor again to pick up the glass pieces.  
“Lou… Like you said in that night in Doncaster, listen to your heart. Then everything will be alright.”  
“But… “  
“If your heart is telling you that you should give Greg another chance, give him.” And if your heart is telling you that give Harry a chance then give me one chance and I will never do anything wrong to ask you for a second chance, ever. Harry was this close to say the last part aloud. He would never do that, because it’s Louis’ choice. When Harry looked up at Louis, he was still there in the doorway with sad eyes.   
“Smile Lou… Noone will remember these past four month” Only me.  
“What about you?”  
That question hit Harry’s heart like a tornado. What will he do? He will pine over this beautiful boy till his death, he will write songs after songs for Louis till he die, he will never love the one who marries him, completely, That is what is going to happen if Louis get back with Greg.   
Harry put on an excited smile which rivalled the old mischievous smiles of the blue eyed boy. Louis looked at him in confusion. And Harry said “Have your first extra marital affair with me Louis.” He finished it with a wink which caused a laugh from both of them. Louis was looking at him without batting an eyelash and Harry broke it by asking   
“So we are still going to your home today, right? Because… like… um… I promised your parents that I’ll bring you back home today… so?”  
“Wha-you promised them what? When did you meet them?” Louis pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. ”Jesus”   
“Lou… relax, it’s nothing. They’ll be so happy to see you. They miss you and your mom told me that they don’t have any problem for dating-” He waved his hand in the air “-whoever you want.”  
“They said that?”  
“Yeah… I don’t understand why you’ve never told them that you are gay.”  
“I was scared about what they’ll say. Mom and Mark love me so much and I didn’t want them to be disappointed in me. No one wants to know that their only son is gay. “  
“Who said they are disappointed in you. They are worried about you, you should have seen your mom’s face when she talked about you. She was crying Lou… I think they are not the one who is afraid of accepting who you are, it’s you who is scared of coming out to your family.”  
“I…” Louis didn’t know what to say. “I am still scar-“  
“I’ll come with you and tell them Lou.” Greg said from behind Louis, startling both Louis and Harry. Louis clutched his heart and Harry busied himself with cleaning the floor pretending that he’s not listening to what they were saying.  
“Greg you can’t just come back to my life out of nowhere and tell me that you want to meet my parents. That was one of the things that you dreaded the most and now you want to see them what the hell? Why now?”  
“Because Lou, that was one of the things that you wanted the most from me, and if you’re going to give me a second chance I want to start it from there.”   
That pleading voice was annoying the hell out of Harry. He picked the pieces with extra force. He could hear Louis sighing and saying, “Whatever Greg, but we are leaving today.”  
“Today?”  
“Yeah. Today. Harry is also coming.”  
“Oh.”  
Harry scoffed at the hurt ‘oh’ of Greg, ignoring the jealousy and the sinking feeling in his stomach.  
***  
They arrived at the Heathrow airport by 12.30. Louis and Harry sat together in the plane talking to each other and laughing, while Greg got a seat near a man who looked grumpier than Greg.   
Louis was purposefully ignoring the nervousness and anxiety that he was feeling by being silly with the boy sitting next to him. The flight crews were treating Harry like he was the queen because they knew who he was, which caused Louis to tease him senseless. At first Harry thought the blue eyed boy was behaving like this to show his ex or current boyfriend (God knows what), and Harry felt sad about it for a bit. But as the time passed by he understood that Louis had actually forgotten about Greg’s presence, which made Harry smile.   
They both ignored what happened yesterday for the sake of not messing everything up.   
Louis and Harry sat in the backseat together on their way to Doncaster too. Greg was pissed and confused by the time they reached the Tomlinson house. Harry was the first to get out of the cab and he came running through the backside of the car to keep the door open for Louis, who bowed like a princess and giggled nervously. Harry scrunched his nose with fondness. Greg looked at the driver then at Harry and Louis. When Greg got out of the car both the boys have reached the front door.   
Louis was nervous and scared was an understatement. Harry squeezed his shoulder and then the door was opened. Louis swallowed seeing his mom standing in the doorway looking tired but excited. He could see her eyes welling up. The next thing he know he was dragged into a bone crushing hug. Jay was crying and Louis saw the twins, Lottie, Fizzy and Mark over her shoulder who were standing behind her silently.   
“We missed you so much Lou.” She kissed his forehead and Louis felt so guilty for running away from his home and for not saying a word to his family.   
“I’m really sorry mom… can..Can I talk to you later?”  
“Sure baby” She said while wiping the tears away.  
The next one to hug him was Mark, who patted him on the back and said nothing. He then crouched down before the twins who hugged him and kissed him repeatedly. When he turned around to look at Harry, Jay was hugging him exactly like she hugged Louis, and she murmured something in his ear, to which Harry nodded. Greg was standing behind Harry awkwardly. Suddenly Louis felt tired, not physically but mentally. He looked at Harry who was looking at him with concern. Harry raised an eyebrow and he shook his head with a small smile. He then looked at Greg who mouthed ‘Should I’ but before he could answer Jay was ushering everyone inside the house.   
“Mom… I’m a bit tired. Can I go upstairs and sleep it off or sometime?” Louis asked while rubbing the back of his neck.   
“Sure honey. I’ll call you for dinner.”  
Louis climbed the steps to upstairs listening to Harry talking cheerfully to the twins and Greg stammering to Jay. He was sure that Greg wouldn’t dare to talk about his and Louis’ relation. He opened the door to his room. Everything looked newly made and neat. The room smelled like fresh cloths and fabric conditioner. He closed the door behind him, washed his face and lie down on his bed.   
He was trying very hard to think about how he’ll present his preference for boys over girls to his family and how Greg was going to introduce him to them, but a pair of green eyes and goofy smile was all he could think of. He thought about how lightheaded he felt when those red soft lips touched his. He thought about how tightly he held him when Louis cried his heart out. He thought abut how he made him smile again after four months.   
He couldn’t believe what Harry told him last night. ‘He said that I was the reason that he was still alive, that it was because of me that he is smiling, that I saved Harry… Harry kissed me, twice. What if he likes me? What would I do if Greg was being serious this time? What would Harry do if I-‘ Louis groaned and buried his head in his pillow. He heard the door creaking open. He raised his head to see his mom looking at him from the doorway.   
“Oh… Thought you were sleeping”  
“No, I wasn’t. Comere mom.” He said beckoning her with his hand in an awkward angle.   
Jay closed the door behind her and sat down on the bed. She started rubbing his calf and Louis felt half of the pressure leaving his body. He sat upright and looked at his mother who smiled at him.  
“So-“ They both started at the same time and laughed. Louis gestured his mom to go on.   
“So… my boy is all grown up to run away with the love of his life.” She said with a pat on his cheek and a smile.   
“Mo..m” Louis groaned.  
“Kidding Lou, We were so worried about you baby. You never contacted us and the lads. We thought something had happened to you.” She stopped picking the edges of the blanket and looked up at Louis with that soft look which always calmed him down. “When Eleanor told us that you and Harry… you know, we were shocked w-“  
“Mum it’s not like tha-“  
“Louis honey, we don’t have a problem with that. Why didn’t you trust us for sharing something that important in your life with us? What did you thought? That we will throw you out of our family when you tell us that you liked boys?” She sighed. “Lou, baby, you should understand that we would never do something like that. You are our only son. And-“Her voice broke and she turned her face away from him. Louis felt his heart dropping into his stomach and he shuffled in his bed to reach his mother’s face. She was crying.  
“Mum look at me… are you upset about the whole gay thing?”  
“No.” She shook his head and tears spilled out of her eyes “Maybe a little bit.” Then she hugged him with all her force. “I’m sorry mum, I didn’t choos-“ “I know baby I know, I love you no matter what.”  
After the sobbing party was over Louis lied flat on his back staring at the ceiling. Jay was about to leave the room.   
“Mum, is Mark okay about it?”  
“Yeah. We both were a little upset about it first, but now we are okay I guess. He was more upset about you gone missing…”  
“Love you mum.”   
Jay turned around and came back to kiss him on his head. “Love you too my baby. Harry took care of you right?”  
Louis felt a lump settling in his throat thinking about the curly headed boy. “Yes, mum. More than you have taken care of me.”   
Jay smiled at him satisfied. “I know he is a very good person. I am glad that you two are together.“   
He gulped and didn’t bother to correct her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank You for reading :):) 
> 
> DiamondD I've replied to your comment on last chapter :))


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy :) how was your holidays?   
> Sorry for taking so long to update. Anyway, this chapter is kind of an end of the story. There will be an epilogue sort of thingy later.  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter. Sorry for all the mistakes and grammatical errors. I love you for reading this :):)x  
> Plus Happy New Year :)

The sound of laughter was what woke Louis up from his sleep. He couldn’t recognize whether it was from downstairs or from the backyard. He shut his eyes and stretched his limbs and twisted his body. A sigh left his lips when his back gave a few satisfied pops. Another laugh from downstairs, he stood up and walked towards the bathroom. The stomach twisting thoughts of Harry and Greg rushed into his mind and he politely told those thoughts to fuck off. He didn’t want to think about anything, at least for sometime.  
A smile bloomed on his lips when he saw Zayn and Stan in the living room downstairs, laughing at something that Lottie had said, Harry was sitting on the loveseat with daisy squished between the hand-rest and Harry, and Phoebe sitting on his lap playing with his curls. Greg was sitting alone. Mark was on his usual chair and Fizzy, Lottie and Safaa were sitting on the floor near Mark, playing scrabbles. Everyone except Greg was either smiling or laughing. Greg’s face was contorted into something distantly similar to a smile.   
Zayn was the first to spot him. He jumped up from the sofa the second he saw Louis and launched himself in for a hug. Seconds later a pair of hands joined their hug and Louis opened his eyes to find Stan smiling at him with crinkling eyes. Zayn punched him lightly in his stomach and glared at him as the boys detached themselves from Louis.   
“You fuc- fudger. Why didn’t you tell us anything?”  
Louis punched Zayn’s shoulder playfully and raised his hands dramatically in the air. “Rejoice peasants… For your Queen is back in Doncaster”. Stan caught him in a headlock and dragged him to where they were sitting earlier. The living room was full with people, and Louis had missed evenings like this, where his sisters, mom and Mark would sit together watching TV and talking before dinner.  
Zayn nudged him with his elbow to get his attention. “So… Queen, tell me about your life with a certain curly haired billionaire in London?” Zayn wiggled his eyebrows and Stan from Louis’ other side put the remote in front of his face like a microphone. Louis swallowed and looked at Harry who was looking at him with slightly bulged eyes. He then looked at Greg whose eyebrows were almost touching his hairline. Louis mentally slapped himself for not explaining the whole situation to Greg and how everyone in his family and his friends are under the impression that he ran away with Harry, but it’s not like Greg deserved any explanation. Louis was about to slap himself mentally again for not explaining everything to Stan and Zayn, when Phoebe asked from where she was perched on Harry’s lap.  
“Lou… Is Harry your boyfriend?” It was funny how the same three people in that room stiffened again at this question. Louis heard a small gasping sound and a cough from the corner where Greg was sitting. But all he could do was look at Harry who was looking down at Phoebe with a fond but nervous smile. Fizzy was the one who rescued them this time. She answered without looking up from the scrabbles the girls was playing “Yes Pheebs, Harry’s Lou’s boyfriend.”   
Everything inside the room was normal except Greg stood up from where he was sitting and Harry squirmed in his seat and that Louis was sweating. Jay chose the exact moment to appear on the doorway to announce that dinner is ready.  
For someone who rejected Louis in the first place Greg was being an asshole by being jealous. Louis could see it on his face when they walked to the dining hall, and he didn’t miss the way Harry smiled smugly at Greg before they sat down for dinner. Zayn was sitting next to Louis and when Harry came with Phoebe perched on his back like a monkey, Zayn winked at him and changed his seat so that Harry and Louis could sit together.   
After the dinner Greg cornered him near the staircase. His face was unreadable.  
“What is going on? Why didn’t you tell me about you and Harry yesterday? Huh?”  
Louis sighed and rubbed his forehead with his forefinger and thumb. He groaned inside because as much as he wanted to explain everything to Greg he was getting irritated with Greg’s presence right now. Louis wanted to snap at him that ‘if you stayed with me and if you were brave enough to meet my parents you wouldn’t have to go through all this shit.’ But he knows that he doesn’t have the right to say it when he himself was a coward to come out to his family.   
“Look Greg, it’s kind of a misunderstanding. Everyone here thinks that I and Harry are together.”  
“And why is that? He said he only met you on a train journey or some shit like that.”  
Louis sighed. “Why are you being so snappy about it? We are not together alright?” soft lips, green eyes. Nope. Not thinking about it.   
“Then why are you not telling that to everyone? That you and him are nothing and that I am your boyfriend?”  
“What the… You can’t be serious Greg. You just told me to fuck off that day. But now you are feeling like someone else is interested in me and bam you are jealous. If I am not denying that me and Harry are not together, there is a reason behind it.”  
“Please do tell me what that reason is so that I can go back to Dublin tomorrow.”  
Louis scoffed. “What is your problem?”  
“That super rich kid, whom everyone thinks is your boyfriend is my problem.”  
“Unbelievable…” Louis would have been shocked if he already didn’t know that, Harry was the reason that Greg is pissed and jealous. “Look Greg, there was a time when I wanted nothing more than the problems between us to get solved. But I don’t think I would want that anymore. I don’t know… I don’t want to make everyone sadder than they are already. They are disappointed that I… I am gay, but they are not showing it, I know it, because they don’t want to make me sad. And the only reason they are happy about the current situation is that Harry is the one who is my boyfriend, or they think so. I don’t want to ruin it, coz mum and everyone love Harry so much, and they are happy that he is my boyfriend.”  
“You know wha-“  
Lottie suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Mum told me to show Greg the room upstairs and told me to ask you if you and Harry can use your bedroom? Plus, Zayn and Stan told me to tell you that they are going home in five minutes.”  
Stan was the one who left first. Zayn and Louis were standing near the fence which separated their houses. Zayn was on about a local footie match. When that topic was over he leaned his body fully on the fence and lit up a cigarette.   
“Lou… I’m just asking” Louis raised his eyebrows expectantly. He knew what was coming, because Zayn was like an open book to him. “But something seems really fishy.”  
Louis nodded his head pursing his lips.   
“Lou, if you don’t wanna talk about it, you don’t have to tell me anything. But… like..um..just know that, I’m a bit worried and confused, so is Stan. God I’m crap at this serious talk stuff.”  
“No… ask me what you wanted to ask. I’ll tell you.”  
“Um… I’m confused. Like you told me that day when you got back from uni that you and Harry met each other on your way back home, in a train. I believed it. You were not lying, right?”  
“No. I was not lying.”  
“Then what the hell are you two, Romeo and Juliet? You just met each other a day before and the next day you are running away because you have fallen head over hells for each other. I mean Lou… What the actual fuck man? El told your mom first, then me. She called me two days after you left and told me that you and Harry were all over each other and some shit like that.” He kicked a pebble with his feet. “We waited for like two weeks and assumed that you and Harry are together in London. But I didn’t believe anything. Because I was sure that you wouldn’t lie to me.“ He paused and grabbed Louis’ shoulder looking straight in his eyes. “Now tell me the truth Louis.”  
Louis had never seen Zayn being so serious. “I…” Louis felt his heart rabbiting in his ribcage. “Harry is not my boyfriend.”  
“Oka..y” zayn said without any emotion as if to tell him to continue.   
“Greg is my boyfriend … or was my boyfriend.”  
“What?”  
By the time Louis explained everything about his and Greg’s relationship in uni, how he met Harry, Harry’s story, how he acted like Harry and him were together to reject Eleanor, how they went to Dublin, how Greg dumped him the day he reached Dublin and how Harry came to visit him yesterday because his mom got to know who Harry is and told him that she wanted to meet him, it was really dark. Zayn made him promise that he would solve everything by tomorrow and would do something about Greg. He told him to forget about Greg passively like a hundred times before he jumped over the fence and went back to his home.   
He buried the guiltiness that he felt for not telling about the confused feeling he has for Harry, and about the kiss, deep inside his mind and walked sullenly to his home. Tonight is going to be a very interesting night.  
***  
Harry was climbing the steps to upstairs when he saw Greg standing in front of Louis’ bedroom. He looked like he was practicing something animatedly. Louis was still in the kitchen with Jay, helping her with the dishes. For the first time Harry felt sorry for Greg even though he didn’t deserve it.   
Harry cleared his throat when he reached the top of the stairs making Greg to stop whatever he was muttering with his hands in mid air.  
“Hello Greg.”  
It was one of the most awkward situations Harry had ever been in. He addressed the older man only because he thought the awkwardness would reduce to somewhat bearable if he did so. But it got only stronger when Greg looked at him with an uneasy look on his face. He nodded and step aside from the door. Harry was about to step inside the room when Greg cleared his throat indicating that he needed to talk. Ugh. Harry turned around and schooled his expression into a less irritated one.   
“So…” Greg started with his hands in the front pocket of his jeans and swaying a bit. “People are under the impression that you and Louis are together.”  
Harry wanted to punch this moron for real this time, because he is the one who asked ‘Which Louis’ to him when he asked about Louis day before yesterday. Now he wants to know everything about him and Louis. Harry is not gonna tell anything. “Yes, I guess.” After a beat he added as an afterthought “Do you have any problem with that?” and regretted it the moment it left his mouth, because he sounded possessive.   
Greg looked like he was also holding back the dislike for the sake of a civil conversation. “I can’t say I don’t have any problem with that.”  
Harry chuckled darkly, “Didn’t felt like it when we had a chat the other day.”  
Greg scoffed and looked around finally meeting Harry’s eyes. “You love him, don’t you?”  
Harry was taken aback by the bluntness of that question. He wouldn’t have missed a beat to answer it, if it was asked by anyone else than this person standing before him with jealous in his eyes, especially when he was the one who broke Louis’ heart. “Yes I do love him.”  
“Figured, or you wouldn’t have travelled from London to Dublin just to meet him.”  
“I would have travelled from London to Australia if I got to know that he was hurt.”  
“So… How is it going… being the hero who mends the broken heart?”   
Harry clenched his jaw. He was genuinely glad that this jerk was no more in Louis’ life. But panic settled in his mind when he thought about the possibility of Louis accepting Greg back in his life. The chances are Louis is going to do that, why else he allowed Greg to come with him to his home. For the umpteenth time Harry felt pathetic.   
When Greg didn’t get a response he continued. “You don’t know Louis like I do. The chances of him saying no to me is less than five percentage, just keep that in mind.”  
“I do not love him to compete with you. I love him because I love him. I’m actually disgusted that you are the first one that I got to admit that I am in love with Louis. And trust me, you think you know him, but you don’t. You want him to change for you, to change him into something he is not. But I don’t want a single thing about him to change.” Harry know he was being dramatic but he didn’t wanted to stop talking, because felt like it will be the only chance he will be getting to confess his love for Louis. Who was he to compete with a three year old relationship?   
***  
Harry thought about waiting for Louis to come back from the kitchen. But decided against it and covered his body with the cosy blanket. He was lying on Louis’ bed which had that distinctive sweet smell of Louis. Harry squeezed his eyes shut and turned around to face the wall. His mind was chanting louislouislouis. Blue eyes, that mischievous smile and the way he ducks his head while biting that beautiful thin lips of his when something embarrassing happens.   
Harry was half asleep when he heard Louis’ voice. His ears perked up and all the sleep was gone from his body in a millisecond. Louis was talking to someone in phone. Harry had to strain very hard to understand what he was saying.  
“Yeah.. He’s asleep.”  
…………  
“No Z, I couldn’t talk to Greg.”  
……………………..  
“It’s so easy when you say it. But it’s hard, you know.”  
……………  
“Shut up you wanker.”  
……………..  
“I’m scared Zayn. I.. I don’t know what to do.”  
………  
“Yeah. Good night”

Then the bed dipped beside Harry and he closed his eyes. The whole night Harry could feel Louis twisting and turning, Harry doesn’t know what made him scoot closer to the restless boy lying beside him and wrapped his hands around the middle of him. Louis’ body stilled and Harry panicked a second but the next moment Louis turned his body around and buried his face in Harry’s chest. Harry thought the boy will wake up in any minute, but he was dead asleep and never moved a limb after that except tightening his hands in front of Harry’s t and nudging his nose further into his chest. Harry didn’t sleep that night, until the clock hit four in the morning.  
***  
When he woke up to the missing feeling of Louis inside his arms it was eight in the morning. He could feel the warm feeling of Louis body even when he was nowhere near him. It was like a phantom limb.   
He hoped that he’ll see Louis in the downstairs or in the kitchen. But he was nowhere to see. When he entered the kitchen Jay and Lottie was there. As soon as Jay saw Harry, she wiped her hands in a tea towel and opened her arms for a hug. Her hugs were always warm with love, just like his mom’s.  
The breakfast was splendid. After five minutes Harry couldn’t help but ask where Louis is.  
“Oh, he didn’t tell you? He went to the park with that friend of yours, Greg.”  
Harry didn’t get a chance to respond because Lottie piped up from where she was frying bacons.  
“Cant even go five minutes without seeing my brother?”   
“Lottie” Jay said with a tone which clearly meant stop embarrassing him.  
Harry couldn’t help but smile because what Lottie asked was exactly true. Then the thought hit him. Louis went to a park with Greg. Ofcourse he’ll go to a park with Greg because he wanted to talk and he wantes to give Greg another chance. The bacons and toast infront of him looked like a Himalayan task at this point.  
***  
Greg was the one who proposed the idea of going to the park and talk about everything. Actually Louis didn’t have anything to talk about. He was thinking about the way he woke up in Harry’s arms, the way he looked in the morning light with all soft edges and innocence. He was brought back to the present when Greg cleared his throat.   
“Yeah, so.. What do you wanna talk about?” Louis asked while looking at a man playing Frisbee with a golden retriever.   
“You changed you know? You became all… I don’t know.”  
“People change when their heart gets broken. It’s a fact.”  
Silence.  
“Can we sit somewhere?”  
“Ofcourse.”  
They sat on a bench which was under a big tree. The air around then was awkward and chilly. All Louis wanted to do was send Greg back to Dublin and go back to comfort of his bed. Why did he even allow Greg to come to his home anyway.   
Greg started. “Firstly, I want to say Sorry… because I was a jerk to you, a massive one at that.”  
Louis rolled his eyes, mentally ticking the checkbox in his mind. If it was a few months ago he would have started crying at this point instead of rolling his eye.  
“I hurt you. And I’m sorry for that.”  
Check.  
“I was scared Lou, I didn’t know what to do, you showed up without a word before saying that we should get married-“  
Louis cringed at the memory.  
“-I was unprepared. But now I’m not scared anymore. I’m ready to talk to your parents Lou.”  
“Because I told them myself that I am gay? And now you don’t have to worry about anything? What changed you? Tell me the truth.”  
Several seconds passed in silence.   
“Harry-“ Harry. Louis’ mind began to race miles per second the moment he heard that name. “-came out of nowhere into the picture. Till then I was sure that you’ll come back to me no matter what. I needed some time to think and make a plan-“ Lie. “-But then he came to me one day asking about you. The fact that he flew from London to Dublin, just to see you made me rethink. It looked like he cared for you. And I didn’t want anyone but me to take care of you.”   
Harry. Greg was still talking. But Louis’ mind was a mess of Harry. The way he looked at him and kissed his cheek before they parted ways in Dublin. The way he hold him tight when he cried his heart out. The way he took care of him. The way he kissed him tenderly with care and love. Love. 

 

Louis was running. He knows Greg was following him yelling his name. He knows he is making a show for people who are on their morning walk. But he didn’t care. All he wanted right now was to meet Harry. He felt restless and felt like he was not running fast enough. He felt like he was about to miss a train.  
***  
Harry was in the backyard with Daisy and Phoebe. He had booked a flight to London which will take off in the evening. Till then he had plenty of time. The same bow and arrow which the twins have had was in his hands. He had made a swing on a tree out of a tyre and rope from the garage. It was Daisy’s turn to swing and Phoebe stood near him giving instructions on how to hold the bow and arrow properly. He was distracted when the backdoor creaked open violently.   
Louis had tear streaks on his cheeks and he was panting when he stood infront of Harry.   
“Lou… whats wrong? ”Harry asked while wiping a tear away from his cheek.   
Louis didn’t know he was crying. “I… I don’t know.. Everything?”  
“Lou, you’re freaking me out.”  
Louis shook his head. He just ran to Harry when he felt like it, and now he don’t know what to say or what to do. Harry’s eyes were big and earnest his brows were furrowed and there was a frown on his lips. Then he heard the doors creaking open. The words left his mouth even before he knew.  
“Is he coming?”  
“Who?”  
“Greg… Is he coming?”  
Everything was kind of a déjà vu. Harry looked at Greg who was walking towards them. He was glaring at Harry. Harry looked back at the blue eyes of the boy infront of him and answered shakily.   
“Yes…”  
“Is… is he looking at us?” His voice was shaking.  
Harry couldn’t form any words so he nodded.   
Then a pair of lips crashed on his and everything was the hands that were clutching the front of his shirt, the hips that he was holding tightly and the lips that were moving against his. Harry could hear the distant sound of one of the twins yelling ‘mom… Harry and Louis are kissing.’ He dragged the boy’s shaking frame into his while deepening the kiss. When they stopped because of the lack of air in their lungs, Louis opened his eyes and Harry squeezed his eyes shut for controlling himself from doing all the things that he wanted to do this boy right then and there. When he opened his eyes again Louis was still looking up at him. Harry tilted his head to peck him on his lips once again.   
“I… I cant thank you enough Harry, for bringing Greg back into my life. It was only because of that I understood how much you care for me … and how … how much you love me-“ Kiss. “When I thought about you leaving today, it made me so restless and-“ Kiss. “It felt like I was missing a train.”  
Harry kissed his forehead. “I… Lou, you don’t know how much I love you. I don’t… ever want to see you cry again. It… it makes me so sad and it makes me do things. I don’t know… I love you.”  
Louis buried his head in Harry’s chest wrapping his hands around him. Harry looked around and there were no one around them, except Jay standing on the veranda with a smile on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :)


End file.
